Unwanted Commentary

Sometimes you have to stop, you have to look at the TV and cock an eyebrow. If you find yourself scratching your head in bemusement as to what I'm referring to, I'm referring to these two teenage girls who have allegedly poisoned a dozen or so classmates with a cake made of non-traditional ingredients. And surely this is enough to make you rub your eyes at the senselessness of it all, but I don't want to shoot my mouth off about the girls or their motives. I don't want to ponder whether it was a prank gone too far or an act of malicious terrorism.

No, what bothered me the most about this news story was the interview with the father. At least I'm pretty sure he's the father, I'm sure it said somewhere, but I was busy trying not to be late for work. All the time I hear stories about people not accepting blame, passing the proverbial buck or whatever you like to call it. I so rarely see it, though, that it becomes like the Abominable Snowman or UFO's. Something confounding to me that others claim to have seen, but nothing I've ever experienced myself. I'm sure I'm being overly dramatic, but bear with me.

As I crisscrossed the apartment hastily throwing on clothes and promising the cats that I would feed them before I left, I listened to this gentleman talk about his daughter and the incident for which they'd been arrested. I gathered this from his articulation: obviously the school was at fault, they without a doubt new about his daughter's past troubles and her poor judgment. His proof lay in the numerous phone calls he received from the school administration or faculty when she acted out in class. Did I overhear something about dancing? And how could you disagree that he should be outraged at the Juvenile Authorities as well; I mean he had put his faith in them and on their recommendation allowed his daughter into public school. It went on like in this vein, and suddenly realized I'd seen Bigfoot on national television.

The great expanding void that exploded in front of me was this man's complete lack of self-examination. I really think he blamed everyone and everything except himself, I'm sure if he had time he would have fingered Bush and the war in Iraq. Evidently the way he's raised his daughter has had no bearing on her actions or how she's developed from the lesson's he's taught her. I don't want to take the moral high ground here, maybe that's too late, but I would have been forced look at myself and asked, "What did I do that led to my child getting arrested for fucking poisoning?". I'm a kook that way.

I don't want to be presumptuous and make assumptions about how this girl, or her friend, was raised. I like to give benefit of the doubt and think that all the adults involved in their lives have tried their level best to bring them up right. Maybe these girls really do have problems that good parenting just couldn't overcome, perhaps their parents thought that the authorities knew best and found put their faith there after all they tried failed. Something, a deep gut feeling, tells me this isn't the case. In the end all I see is a sad situation involving two very young people who are surrounded by adults who are only going to exacerbate their problems.