Call it stereotyping, because it probably is. But when I'm listening to the news or reading the papers and I come across a story of some young fellow being cut down, how I react depends heavily on the related circumstances. Where did it happen? Who killed him? What was he doing? And now an equally important question is, what do his friends and family say about him?
Depending on the answer to those questions, I may react by saying, 'Not another murder!' or 'One more troublemaker off the streets!'. So, why the hardline stance? Simple- I get sick of turning on my TV, hearing of young persons involved in shady situations, getting shot or chopped or whatever the in thing is now, and then having to listen to their friends and family talk about how good they were, and how they troubled nobody, and how they helped the old lady cross the street, and how they gave the little boy lunch money for school, and how they want justice. Pardon the long sentence.
I'm sure that some of the above statements have been true in some cases, but so often the comments are simple hogwash. So in general I spare myself the headache of trying to decipher head from tail, and simply draw my own conclusions based on the basic facts.
A part of me realizes that, in some cases, persons' definitions of the term 'good person' depend on varying factors. For some, Bulbie is a good person because he protected his people and avenged their deaths. However, that's not the thinking of others. But some people are just blatant liars, creating commotions because it's the thing to do. Afterall, I can't allow my murderer best friend to be seen as a bad person, can I?
You can imagine how relieved I was when I watched the news tonight. A 19 year old girl was chopped to death by a 19 year old boy, and the boy was subsequently murdered by someone else. The mother of the boy was in mourning... but not for her son. She was grieving the death of the girl. She referred to her son as a 'troublemaker' who refused to find a job and threatened to hurt her. Whew! There is hope! There's actually a murderer out there who's not innocent!
To that mother I say thank you! Thank you for restoring in me some hope that our society is not completely gone to the dogs. Our ability to distinguish between right and wrong is critical if we're to have any hope of restoring this country to one of peace and prosperity. May the baby steps continue.
3 comments:
its kind of sad when the state of things have gotten so bad that the person who subsequently killed the boy, in our eyes, is not just as guilty as the boy himself... I dunno if those baby steps aren't just moving in circles.
Not saying he deserved it or the person who killed him wasn't wrong, but like Adrian, I am actually kinda surprised to hear that for maybe the first time there was someone killed who wasn't hailed as a saint and pefect angel.
He threatened his own mother, You cant justify that. And in this case the police who shot him said it was in self defence. That Kid was clearly not too connected upstairs, killing such ppl when they are violent is never a problem in society, One less problem to deal with.
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