As Our Youth suffer so does Our Country

Calling all parents, not just those who are with the kids from birth but those also who contributed to the creation of that child.  It is time for all of us to step up and put an end to this type of senseless violence as only parents can do.  How many more young lives are we going to watch get destroyed before we say enough and step up to show them a different way than the way of the streets.

This is the third type story that I have read this week and it is three to many.  It can be found at Missoulian.com and it is titled “Teens plead not guilty in homeless men's deaths”.  In it you will read, “Three teenagers indicted in the beating deaths of two sleeping homeless men in Albuquerque have pleaded not guilty.  The teens entered their pleas Friday and were ordered held on $1 million cash-only bond.  The 15- and 16-year-old suspects were charged as serious youthful offenders and indicted on first-degree murder charges. They will be tried alongside 18-year-old Alex Rios in adult court.  Rios and the two younger suspects are accused of attacking three homeless men as they slept in a vacant lot and beating them to death with cinder blocks, a metal pole and other items.  The two men who died were Native American, but police say there's no indication the teens sought out the victims based on race.  If convicted, all three defendants could face up to life in prison.”

The article does not tell us why they thought this was a good idea or does it gives us anything useful that we could learn except that it is far beyond time for those who pretend to be parents or create a child to step up and stand up.  These teens’ lives may now be too far gone to rehab and to them, whatever dream that they had may appear over.  Life in prison is a very long sentence for a 15 and 16 year old but it seems that they will not be the only ones.  Our teens are screaming for help and we need to stop being too busy to answer that call.  A parent’s job is to educate their child so that they can see other ways to survive instead of making life-altering decisions like this.  We, as parents, are truly failing based on the stories like this.

They were two sleeping homeless men, bothering no one as it is written here, now for the sake of not jumping to conclusions, maybe those teens figured that they had a reason for what they did but if what you read, you then believe, this article would make you think that they didn't.  Maybe someday we may hear more about the reason behind this attack but looking at it in the long run, you have to know that many of our teens are making similar life-altering decisions which many never recover from.  They were not born with the thought of beating a sleeping man to death so how did they get to this point and what can we do to stop the next wayward teen.  It’s simple, take a few minutes to talk to and listen to your child.  You spend a lot of your time with your friends; don’t you think you could spend just a few minutes with your own child?