Sunday, August 07, 2011

Warning...a mega rant......

I am officially a member of the older generation.

I took one look at the appalling rioting in London yesterday and am now watching police dispersing more rampaging youths again tonight, while listening to people try to explain why it is "all the government's fault", and these young thugs/hoodlums - well...apparently it is not their fault. Nothing ever is. WHAT??

Oh, give me strength.

Call in the army. Bring in the water canons. Or, as my friend's 90 something year old mother says, spray the lot of them with gentian violet and then round them up over the next 2 weeks before the purple wears off. Looting. Homes and cars and businesses destroyed. People's lives wrecked.

There is NO EXCUSE for wanton destruction.

There is NO EXCUSE for looting.

There is NO EXCUSE for violence.

Where is the respect? The justice? The law? The order? Do not come to me with "people have lost trust in the police". "People have no jobs". OH?? So that is reason to take a trolley of goods from a store including a plasma TV???????? I don't have a plasma TV. In fact, I do not know anyone who does. Everyone has a choice about how they act. These hoodlums young people have choices. They are making the wrong ones. And now I am listening to party politicians sniping at each other, and I want to scream, because this nonsense HAS TO STOP.

Some kids grow up with no respect, yet with the expectation that they can have everything they want without any effort on their part. They are taught their rights, but not that with those rights comes responsibility. I used to teach some like them. You have no idea. I see hundreds of young people on TV as I write, taunting the police and running around with hoodies on, trying to obscure their faces, and WHERE ARE THEIR PARENTS????????

And the opposition politician says............ they have nowhere to go. WHAT???? They can go HOME. My kids did not need entertainment out every night. They were not there out on the street loitering, causing trouble. And get this, my kids had a Dad who was away 9 months of the year. They didn't live in a "normal" ideal family It was different. They had friends round to our home, and they had a huge amount of fun RIGHT HERE, WHERE I COULD KEEP AN EYE ON THEM.

You may have caught the idea that I am:
  1. irate
  2. shouting
  3. beyond frustrated
  4. angry
  5. did I mention IRATE??????
I am a parent. I believe a parent has work to do, and that work revolves around delivering a law abiding, respected and respectful child into the world as an adult. I get 18+ years to do this. Until then, I need to nurture, monitor, guide, and love him or her, and make sure he or she keeps on the straight and narrow, learns the difference between right and wrong, and how to make good choices. This is what parents get to do. I believe in standing up for what you believe in - including taking part in PEACEFUL protests. I did just that as a student. But violence????? Oh no. Never. Ever. No. Way. 

Arson? Shudder.

I do not need to hear about social deprivation. Nor do I need to hear about "poor kids". They all have mobile phones, and apparently cars at their disposal right now (on TV). And, apparently, a great deal more disposable income than I have. What gives them the right to run as a pack of wild animals? Threatening older people?

Lock them all up and toss away the key.

As I said at the start of this mega rant, I am now a member of the older generation. The generation who was raised right. It is not about race or ethnicity or class or education. It is about very very bad decisions made by out of control kids with no respect for law and order, who should now have to suffer the consequences of their actions. 

14 comments:

Stickhorsecowgirls said...

Wow, and we're being told that socialized government is the answer to all our problems here in the states. Seems the world is getting out of control. Our hearts are breaking this morning because of son's wife of less than two years walked out yesterday, says she doesn't love him and wants a divorce. No abuse--he just doesn't want to go out and party after a hard days work. He makes pickles from the cucumbers from his first garden--how boring. He is broken hearted. The level of selfishness I'm seeing distresses me no end. I'm ready for the Lord to return and deliver us from this mess. Sorry, I'm just having a bad day.

Vee said...

Have only seen snippets of the mayhem there and must say that I thought of you and knew right well where you'd stand. There is never an excuse to behave this way. Still, I must say that the climate of the entire world just now seems to be teetering. Revival. We need a good old-fashioned one right about yesterday because there is nothing that we can do to put the genie back in the bottle. We can not make parents do the work today that they should have been doing a decade ago. Sigh. Don't mean to ramp up your rant. We just need to remember where our help lies. It certainly isn't with governments.

Vee said...

Oh I do like the gentian violet idea. Splendid one it is!

Linda said...

Amen and amen Linds! I have the same reaction, so I join you as part of the older generation. It is infuriating.
Every time there is a championship game, we get to watch the spectacle of the fans of the winning team set fires, loot stores, overturn vehicles and generally act like a bunch of hoodlums. There is absolutely no excuse.
I sometimes just despair. What in the world is going on?

Crystal said...

The same thing happened in Vancouver when the local hockey team didn't win the last game of the Stanley Cup Championship. It was a game! A sporting event! Not an excuse to look and riot!! I agree whole heartedly with your ideas to lock them up and take responsibility. It will be interesting to see what happens with the social media exposure. In Vancouver, Facebook was part of the help in identifying so many of them. Thank goodness our God is bigger than all of this!

Crystal said...

It was supposed to say ""loot and riot"!

Dawn said...

I am definitely of the older generation - and have been of that mind set, evidently, ever since I heard about the first riot after a GAME - and the riot in LA over race. It just makes no sense whatsoever! I read the story this morning after I saw your FB post - I don't watch news much (too depressing), so have to look things up. I am anxious to talk to my London niece and nephew when they come down from the mountains this week.

Kelli said...

Amen, sister. Ridiculous. I read story after story in the London and Edinburgh papers about new multi-generational families, of whom no one has ever held down a job. They survive on benefits and housing allowances. From a system they have never paid into! This whole "Entitlement" mentality makes me sick. My kids start to lean that way every once in a while, and BAM! You better believe we cut that off right quick. Oh. My. Word. Right quick.

God help us.

Janine said...

I'll join you in the older generation. Watched some coverage on SKY News and was horrified. There is never a reason for violence on that scale. Of course, I live in a country where people burn down schools because they don't have enough books - the youth of today are screwed up. Time for parents to take some responsibility for the way that they raise their kids instead of blaming someone else.

MotherT said...

I'm very definitely on your side with this. As a matter of fact, I just recently had a long talk with one of my sons about his childrens' attitudes of entitlement and how he needed to get it under control!

I love the violet genetian idea. How great would that be!

Needled Mom said...

Amen from a fellow member of that generation! I do like the idea of the gentian violet spray. Ummm.

Visits With Mary said...

Rage on Linds...you are soooo right. What has come over this world, that we tolerate this type of behavior. When I was young, (yes, before dirt) it wasn't the law, it was my parents who would have taken me behind the barn and and spanked my bottom...Thank you Mom and Dad for holding tight to the reigns when I was growing up...
hmmmm, enough said ! !

Anonymous said...

I can remember when i started school being told by my father that if i ever came home from school saying I had received the cane for bad behaviour (1950's) I would receive another dose from him. I never did but I knew he ment it. When my own children arrived I taught them I ment what i said, and that they would have to work to get the good things in life.

Edith said...

I totally agree with your rant. Put me right up there in the older generation. Dealing with kids as a bus driver...you can definitely tell the ones who are taught respect. (Same for when I have to contact a parent).

(By the way...I'm still here...just haven't been able to get anything to post when I've actually had time to write it).