what are we doing to our children

[Steve]

I lost a few friends who made bad decisions back in the day. One of my friends rode in the back of a pick-up when he knew the driver was drunk. This lapse of judgement cost him his life. It's no different for Trayvon. The lapse of judgement that caused him to assault a grown man cost him his life. When you live in a free society, these kinds of things can happen. People can make bad decisions and pay the ultimate price for them. In today's super nanny society, if someone ever makes a bad decisions, society tries to take away people's ability to make bad decisions. I think the same principle applies to TM. Some people can't stand it knowning that TM lived in a society where he could actually suffer for his bad decision...so they try to throw everyone's right to self defense down the toilet.

Whereas, back in the past, people might have said, "Ya poor dumb kid. Why'd ya do that and get killed?"

I think you completely misunderstand. My point was that before rushing to label tm as a criminal in training, perhaps some people could be a little more self aware. Clearly TM's poor judgement cost him his life. But also clearly, many of the fine, upstanding people on this board were other than little angels in their youth. It's the hypocrisy that I think warrants bookmarking in this thread.

Course, to your point, Zimmerman is also responsible for his lack of judgement and poor decisions. But that wasn't where I was headed.

This thread is a darkly funny confession by some of the very same people who were quick to write off TM as having amply earned death. I believe he was no more deserving than you guys, who admit to acting like idiots, risking your own lives and the lives of others in your younger days. Or the kids who died in the past while being foolish.

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[Tgace]

What about "kids" who rob 7-11's and get killed?

I find this analogy a stretch. Being "stupid" by blowing things up in a field is orders of magnitude different from intentional application of violence onto another person...

 

[Steve]

Any indication that tm robbed a 7-11? Can you post a link to that article?

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[Sukerkin]

Gently please, gentlemen; you're on the verge of being argumentative and silly for no good reason {yes, I KNOW it's the internet but still :lol:}. Bringing stretchy analogies into threads where they don't belong is not really very effective in making a point or conducive to good conversation or meaningful discourse.

Oh and don't run with scissors and always look both ways before crossing the road

 

[jks9199]

Let's maybe pull off of Trayvon Martin and more to the general... Are we hitting kids with some pretty serious charges (like a felony for a bottle bomb) for what really amounts to kid stuff?

 

[arnisador]

Are we hitting kids with some pretty serious charges (like a felony for a bottle bomb) for what really amounts to kid stuff?

Yes. I can imagine many cases where even a simple home-made "bomb" like this might merit serious charges, but we need to differentiate. In general, though, yes--we're just ruining too many kids' lives at an early age and then complaining when they grow up to be adult criminals for lack of better options, as we're also locking too many people out of even routine jobs because of background checks and lawsuit paranoia.

 

[Steve]

I think that, in general, we need to remember that teenagers are still learning important life lessons.

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[granfire]

I think that, in general, we need to remember that teenagers are still learning important life lessons.

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what what are the lessons to be learned from charges like this?
Never think outside the box?
Play it safe?
Conform?

 

[Steve]

What are you talking about?


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