All morning I've been listening to the sound of bagpipes as I clean the house getting ready for Easter.
My family will be together, we will miss our mother and father who have recently passed, but we will celebrate life everlasting as Christians.
It will be in stark contrast to other families in Pittsburgh, the families of Officers Eric Kelly , Paul Sciullo II, and Stephen Mayhle.
They are for whom the pipes play.
Thier lives tragically snuffed out by their polar opposite, Richard Poplawski.
These 3 brave officers responded to a domestic call from Poplawski's mother. "Take his ass out", I think were her elegant words when she met them at them at the door( oh, she failed to mention there was a STOCK PILE of weapons, including an illegal AK47 modified ), the officers were gunned down in a surprising hail of bullets. The mother ran to the basement to hide.
It all started so young for all of them, the victims and the killer, the molding of their personalities.The parents who did or didn't raise them, the teachers , the pastors, priests, doctors, neighbors who all watched them grow.
We see promise in all our children and we can spot trouble very early.
As a parent I have witnessed too many children growing up without coping skills, without a parent present in their lives either through divorce or work out of the home.The lack of the use of the word "No" and swift actions that show consequences for bad behavior, or the over reaction in an abusive manner ,all form an adult who can be dangerous and hurtful to other people,as abusers, and possible killers.
If we aren't in trouble with our children as a nation, tell me why there are shows like "Nanny 911"? Have you seen the kids on those shows, and have you seen how the Nannies plus the parents are able to turn them around? What is it that always does it? It's the nanny insisiting on the LOVING involvement of the PARENT with discipline and hugs. Novel idea...
I was in the pediatricians office with my son yesterday and witnessed a future trouble child...he blew into the office slapping and hitting his older brother on the head and screaming, his mother ignoring the whole thing. I'm talking beyond the regular kid stuff here.
This was ballistic behavior.He screamed at the top of his ample lungs when he didn't get his way and wailed on his poor brother constantly, hitting with a fist in the face.
His mom ignored this, the waiting room sat in silent horror.He insisted on getting a lollipop BEFORE his visit and screamed , his mother walked away into the doctor's office...he grabbed the basket , took a lollipop and triumphantly ate it as he smiled, knowing he was doing something wrong...we could hear him screaming through his whole visit, can you imagine the poor nurse and doctor dealing with that?
He ruled the room and told his mother what to do and she obliged and he was all of 3 years old.
He did what he wanted when he wanted and responding violently when he met resistance....
She was afraid of her 3 year old son.
How soon before she calls 911 to have him removed from her home?
What happens when he's old enough to drive and someone cuts him off in traffic?
What happens when he's big enough to slap and hit his mother and really do damage?
What hapens when his girlfriends say no to his sexual advances?
What happens when a teacher gives him a bad grade or tells him to sit still?
Or when he is set loose on the internet and can figure out how to make explosives and wants to get back at anyone who didn't give him his way?
Don't have a child if you can't raise them, really raise them. Don't do it because all your friends are starting familes, don't do it because you want to save your marriage, or please your parents... think long and hard about it ...it's a ton of work and there's this unwritten promise between you and your Creator that you shepherd this child into the world as a caring and loving adult...
I'm not writing this as a smug perfect parent, I didn't have perfect parents either, but I am no trouble to society...and that is the earned right of this authorship.
If you see trouble in your child, DON"T IGNORE IT, dig in and get dirty with the work it takes to save his/her soul, the families of Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo II, would agree with me on this one.
The trouble starts early, but so can the good...
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