Everyday, we read in the papers or hear on the news yet another story of gang violencewe shake our heads in dismissal muttering something about how someone should do something about these kids, questioning why these kids are in gangs to begin with, fighting over turf” and respect. Someone should be held accountable for their actions we say to anyone who will listen. Never do we consider even fleetingly that WE as parents, teachers, government, the media, the church we attend on Sunday mornings, and as a society are to blame. Where would a persons skin color factor in or make a difference is we didn’t teach our kids that it does? Or someone’s religious beliefs become the reason for war? Because we as a society teach that diversity is a BAD thing. A thing to be feared, conquered and destroyed. Something which is unacceptable, and God knows it is acceptance that a child craves the most Children really do live what they learn, and will carry those lessons and pass them over to their children, and so on. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. ” Words can hurt and have a more lasting effect than would said sticks and stones. Words can destroy your self esteem, your belief in right and wrong, influence your decisions and how you see yourself and the world around you. When a parent tells a child that they are no good, a child will grow up believing that and look to “be good” somewhere other than homein a gang, a kid can become everything that he wishes for and to be at home love and acceptance.

Isn’t it funny how we chose to contend with the dissatisfaction and disappointments in our lives. WE all have our own special ways to deal with this merry go round we call life don’t we? We have and continue with bad relationships, nip at the bottle a time or two or ten, we have affairs, overeat, do illicit drugs ( or prescription drugsthink “mother’s little helperout side the door she took four more, what a drag it is getting old.”) Maybe we work to much, live vicariously through our kids or our friends.
Maybe we gamble or have a fondness for a certain stripper down at the local club. Or we shop too much, running our credit and our lives into a brick wall at warp speed. Or we abuse the ones we love and who look to us for protectionyou know the ones, our wives, children, maybe our pets for example. WE lie, cheat, steal, purposely hurt one another. Or maybe we just withdraw into ourselves and our own private little hells, never letting anyone close, much less inside the walls that we have built around ourselves to keep us free from the disappointments in which the foundation of said walls were built. Our dissatisfaction and disappointment in our own lives is passed on to our kids Whatever vice ours might be, that it is acceptable to live, to think, and to behave that way, is what we are teaching our kids is acceptable, or what the gangs are teaching because we simply have washed our hands of our kids or just can’t find the time for them and our “ways of coping.” So we choose to cope with whatever vice seems to help us.

Then there are those whom come into positions of power and contend with their dissatisfaction and let downs by bullying othersfrom the grade school bully picking on someone less apt or less popular, to the leader of our country whom simply goes to war dragging thousands of innocent soldiers in, to contend with that of which has disappointed him. Or the racist or bigot, the murder or molesterwhat is the common denominator?
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We are, as a society and as parents. In that we turn the other cheek and live like sheep. We accept the unacceptable rather than stand up and try to make a difference, because we don’t want to get involved and shun anything that might make our own cushy little lives different. It is said that we are our own worst enemies, and that if you REALLY take a close look into the mirror you will find the enemy from which you have been running from all of your life. Remember that you are not the only one running from that enemy, so are your kids.

To say that all have fallen short of the glory of God has got to be the biggest understatement of them all, yet we DARE to stand in judgment of anotherperson, religion, mindset, whatever. WE don’t do so our of our disappointment in them, so much as being disappointed, to the point of full on pissed off at times, at them for not doing things, believing, feeling, thinking, or having the same skin color as we do. So few of us know the true meaning of the word diversitythose of us that are so quick to rule and judge. So quick are we to cast blame. The place to start looking to cast that blame is at the man in the mirror.