The Love of Money causes teen minor burns, mother jail time and the break-up of a family

I know that I say all the time that we should not judge a story until we have heard the full version but this one I think is a “no-brainier”.  Title is “Mom allowed teen to set himself on fire for Facebook” and it is brought to us by WCNC-TV in Charlotte, N.C.   It’s a no-brainier because the story clearly told us what this was all about. 

The story reports that “Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say a mother knowingly allowed her son to douse himself in fingernail polish and set himself on fire. It’s part of a Facebook challenge that encourages people to post a video of themselves on fire.  Youth Crimes Detectives and Social Services investigated the incident. They say the teen's mother, 41-year-old Janie Lachelle Talley, were aware of the event and facilitated the recording. Others put out the fire. The teen suffered minor burns to his chest and neck.  Talley was arrested without incident. She is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.  Facebook has removed many of these videos and CMPD discourages everyone from copying the activity.”

At first glance one would think that at 41 years old you would know better and definitely not ever put your own child in any type of danger but not this lady.  You would think that it had to be a serious amount of money for either of them, the teen and his mom, to even consider this but you would also be wrong.  It was a contest people; someone put it out there as a joke and those whom we think is smarter than this fell for it hook, line and sinker.  You have to ask, just how much money it takes to make you act like you have no earthly idea what common sense is.  Is life really that bad that you would stoop to put your child in even the slightest of danger to collect?  What’s the going rate for intelligence today and is it something that we are losing slowly like the nutrition in our foods?  Does not your family mean anything to you or it all depends on your negotiation skills and the amount of money offered?

But you want to know the real kicker to this story that is not being reported?  The mother is not the only one who knew about this or approved of it.  There were plenty others around that could have put an end to this before it got out of hand but refused to step up and stand up.  There were a few more not so smart people involved even though they will tell you they did not have a voice because it was between a mother and her son.  That’s a lie because when it comes to decisions like this, there is no bond of family there just an existence of “toleration for the sake of compensation.”   Toleration for the sake of compensation is not a bond and one that should be honored by anyone.  How do I know that others were present and should have stepped up, the teen doused himself with nail polish.  Yeah, nail polish and others put him out while mother filmed it.  This case screams that we all only need to take a few minutes and step into the parents shoes because it does not take much brain power to figure this out just like it did not take much brain power to do it.