Bad Behavior

 Back to school parties can be bad, especially when high school age kids mix alcohol, drugs, and who knows what else.  The Albany Times Union reported that several teens got the great idea that they would break into an ex-NFL players home and use it as a personal party pad for the weekend.  The problem, other than breaking in and using it for a personal party pad, was that they decided to post pictures and other evidence on Facebook and Twitter because when committing a crime, there is nothing better than self-disclosure.

Personally, I am happy they did it because now we can skip the mea culpas about "not my fault" and I didn’t mean to when they really mean, they didn’t mean to get caught BS.  This type of behavior is exactly what Brian Holloway called it: "a migrating mass of absurd ideas and entitlement."  That's right, this behavior happened, not because it is okay, but because the kids feel entitled and parents are more likely to lash out at the person trying to correct their child's behavior than they are at their kid who they apparently have skipped parenting for the past sixteen to eighteen years.

Instead of parents showing up with their child to help clean up the property, Holloway has reported multiple parents have threatened to press charges against him, sue him, or firebomb he and his family after he reported what their children had already reported via Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Is this a joke?

Your kid breaks into someone else's house.  They are obviously underage, yet still probably engaged in drugs, alcohol, and potentially date rape when you read some tweets about roofies and being unable to wake up young women.  Your kid tweets about all of the above and you are mad that someone says, you shouldn't out my kid?  Really?!?

Hey, better idea...raise your kids to have a clue.  Help them learn a little respect for not only their over inflated egos, but for other people's property.  Instead, you are worried your kid won't make it into college now.  Maybe college and being around more drugs and alcohol isn't quite the right place for your temperamental child whose value system is pretty poor anyway.

While the students' behavior was bad, in general, it is the defensiveness of these moronic parents that is worse.  How can we grow as a society when parents defend the actions of these wannabe parasites who think the world will just show up and deliver to them?  For those parents who think this is okay, you should be glad Mr. Holloway is trying to help get them on the straight and narrow.  Some folks wouldn't go the route of education and helping them like Holloway is with his Help Me Save 300 Initiative.  Some folks would use force - deadly force - to stop this.  Whose side is the law on when it comes to defending yourself and your property.  What happens if it isn't Holloway's home, but that of George Zimmerman?

Since some of these parents are so eager to go to court to save their precious Johnny's reputation, I hope Mr. Holloway follows suit and not only presses criminal charges, but engages in his own civil suit against these parents who think this type of behavior is acceptable.  I would love to be on THAT jury.  It isn't often that the defendant puts the evidence against himself or herself out there for all to see, but in this case, how much easier could the case be?

In the meantime, instead of expressing gratitude and appreciation, your anger is funny.  Now that you are ready to play mamma and papa bear to your little wayward cub, you want everyone to be nice to your little bear cub.  I am guessing you are the same mamma and papa bear who were busy yelling at teachers to let Johnny retake his chem test because he was caught cheating, but you thought that was okay....a youthful mistake because instead of teaching valuing ethics and integrity, you taught how important 401(k) and BMWs were.  I am guessing you were the same parent yelling at coaches and referees when Johnny couldn't catch the ball as if it were their fault, Johnny thought he could just do those moves like they do on the Wii football game.

You clearly went into CYA mode when you decided that it was a good idea to delete that evidence against little Johnny, despite the fact it had already been posted and screenshots had been nabbed.  Much more important to deny, deny, deny than take Mr. Holloway up on his offer to help clean up his place.  Smooth move Ex Lax!  I realize your poor little one shouldn't be exposed to the idea of cleaning up urine soaked carpets, but maybe they shouldn't have been exposed to urine soaked carpets to begin with.

You should be glad Holloway is trying to parent your child since you gave up on the task so long ago, but my real question is, who is going to parent you?

 

9/11 - Twelve years later...

Today is always a raw day for me, but this year I have a distraction with the new job.  In the meantime, the Dallas Morning News posted the following that I had written for their Voices section:

Are you waving your flag? Today is Sept. 11, and I wave the flag today out of respect for my first-responder brothers in New York who died that morning racing up steps when others were running away.

 

Twelve years ago, I responded to the Pentagon after a unit from the fire department reported a plane down and heavy black smoke. I had a front-row seat to hundreds of deaths that day.

I’m a paramedic by both profession and avocation, so I’m not squeamish. When death happens, the talking heads talk and most of us watch, but not everyone. Some people act.

 

I have watched 9/11 be used by this group or that to make their political cases — for a bigger Transportation Security Administration, a more heavy-handed National Security Agency, for protections for Muslims, or whatever cause célèbre.

 

I watch as members of the media fall all over themselves to cover these machinations, and I think about a comment a friend made recently: We slobber all over the charismatic — the great stories — but not the good stories where people are doing important work without making it a show. It’s the workhorse vs. show horse argument.

 

Thirty years ago, when three homeless men in Dallas died after sleeping in large trash bins, many were horrified. But rather than lamenting their deaths and going about his own life, Jerry Hill, an Episcopalian priest, started asking how to help the homeless.

 

His was not a mission for cameras and applause, but he kept going anyway. Again and again, he kept going because he wanted to provide a safe place for those who were left behind on the street. He wanted no accolades or honors, but rather to provide a shelter where he could show his care for his brothers.

 

Like the fire service that works as a unit and as your second family, Hill enlisted the assistance of businessmen, other clergy and the community at large for what became the Austin Street Shelter. He built a team that consisted of people trying to make a positive difference. The shelter might be considered a testimony to one man’s quest to do a little good.

 

The apple, of course, doesn’t fall far from the tree. Hill’s son, Marty, is just as involved in the community. He is developing a center to help women with addictions.

In both cases I think of the race — or marathon — these men are running, trying to outpace such overwhelming forces.

 

When I think of 9/11, I think of Jerry and Marty Hill. I also think of Bob Schiavone, a former New York firefighter who now manages high school programs for adults in Los Angeles. The flag he waves is for the challenges he is fighting today, and he does so quietly, respectfully.

 

These men remind me of former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said, “Do a little bit of good wherever you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

 

When you wave flags this week, I hope you will think about how you can be of service to your community. What tragedy, big or small, can you help lessen?  There are flags to be waved, but they should wave with dignity for the races yet to be run, races in your community.

 

Are you up for it?

For now, I hope those lost will be mourned and remembered and that we are each up for the next task at hand.