Years Old
Years Old
Blame The 11 Year Old
11 year old Jordan Brown was charged Saturday as an adult in the shooting death of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, who was 8 months pregnant. (Yes you read that correctly! 11 YEARS OLD!). According to police and the District Attorney in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania the 11 year old took his 20 gauge (his gun used for hunting with his father and not requiring a permit) and shot his father's pregnant girlfriend in their western Pennsylvania farmhouse, then got on the school bus and went to school, authorities said Saturday.
By now if your not shaking your head in total disbelief and astonishment then there might be something wrong with you. But! Then again, given the enormous amount of violence, brutality and treachery which we are exposed to each day you might not be shocked at all. What shocked me were three things;
1. A 26 year old woman Kenzie Marie Houk and her unborn child were brutally slain by her soon to be stepson and that two families have been destroyed by this terrible act.
2. That he is 11 YEARS OLD. No more needs to be said.
3. That the District Attorney John Bongivengo decided to charge the 11 year old as an adult.
Now first let me start by clearly stating that i am not a bleeding heart liberal. Yes my political leanings tend to be more Liberal then Conservative but i do consider myself rather independent in my political views ( i believe in the death penalty for murder or heinous crimes against children and women). Secondly I want to also say that the victims here are Kenzie Marie Houk and her unborn child. They are the victims of this terrible crime. There is no way to justify the act. Any attempt to try and candy coat the earth shattering impact it has had and will have on their families would serve only to undermine this tragedy.
One thing we must do however is try and understand the act and most importantly weigh the logic in charging an 11 Year Old as an adult. It is necessary to ask the questions that need to be asked. To try and gain greater insight into what has happened and more importantly what is happening to the youth in our society. The questions are not simple and the answers are far from clear. The fact however remains that there is an 11 year old who is going to be brought to justice for his act by being put on trial as an adult. The questions are. What purpose does this serve our society? What impact does this have on preventing or deterring similar crimes in the future? Most importantly will ultimately putting him on trial as an adult fix anything that is wrong with today's youth? I probably don't have many of the answers to those questions but i do want to explore some things more indepth.
For any of you who have 11 year olds take a look at them. Now sit back and carefully analyze how they act. What is their level of intellectual intelligence? What are their overall social skills and compartment? What is their ability to rationalize and distinguish between right and wrong? Not right and wrong as in its not OK to pull my 8 year old sisters hair, but their ability to measure the long term implications and consequences of their own actions and the actual real life results. This is where i have a problem. I have an 11 year old. I cannot imagine my child or any other 11 year old taking such a course of action. I cannot imagine what would drive or motivate them to do something like that. At the same time i know how 11 year olds act as i have had 3 of my other children pass that age. I understand to a limited degree their ability to measure actions and the resulting consequences. I am also all to conscious of the incredible impact our current social environment has on them and how they behave. Am i trying to create an excuse for murder? NOT for one single second. But i am not willing to simply throw any 11 year old under the bus simply because we live in some state of denial.
11 year old's of today are not the 11 year old's of yesterday. They are similar but they are different then night is from day. The constant bombardment of violence available from all formats including TV, music, Internet, video games and movies is one element that is completely different then that which an 11 year old growing up in the 70's would have experienced. The transformation of the family unit from two parents to single shared parents and in many cases singular parent models is vastly contrasted to the 11 year old of the 1970's. Our children grow up in a very different world facing very different pressures and exposure then we did 35 years ago. Some might say its easy to look back and make comparisons and to say that that is in no way a justification for the violence and the crime which contaminates the youth of today. In some cases it would be right not to try to hard to look back to see how we were but to focus on how we are now. It would also be easy to write off the change which has occurred in our society and simply blame the obvious. That is unacceptable. This desire we have as a society to blame everyone and anyone else for the current plight of our youth is sickening. We try and blame everything and anything on their habits, their conduct and their actions. We blame Hollywood, the video game producers, we blame the Internet, we blame their teachers, we blame other parents.We blame a weak judicial system, bad judges, lawyers, police. We blame the government. Sadly we blame the 11 year olds. We simply point the finger at whoever is convenient and the situation grows ever worse.We never ever, take responsibility.
That responsibility is clear. The reason its clear is because we are the parents, we are the Internet, we are the film makers and video game makers. We are to blame. We vote for the people who make the laws. We allow our children to see what they see. To be exposed to what they are exposed to. There is no way to protect them or shelter them from everything that is out there but our attempt to limit our liability and responsibility to 10% is sad. So now an 11 year old will stand trial for his crime. There is no doubt that he must be punished for his acts. That he must be made to understand the irreversible effect which his actions have caused. The pain and trauma which has resulted from those actions. The truth though, is we should all be on trial for what we have allowed to happen. What he have accepted is happening in our society and how we have turned a blind eye and tried to blame everyone else for the current results. This child needs to be on trial as a child, he is a child and he is what we have allowed and permitted him to become. The old fall back of, ''he must just be evil'' is a lame excuse for us, for our society. A way for us to simply continue to pass along the blame. This 11 year old boy could be anyone's son, yours or mine. The idea that we can simply write off these actions to rare occurrences has long since past. Don't believe me? Simply type in child killers into an Internet search engine and prepare to be astonished. In reality you won't be astonished because somewhere buried deep in the recess of your mind and heart you already know how off track we have become in regards to raising and managing our young people.
Fear not however my friends for very soon a child will go on trial as an adult and instead of questioning ourselves and our actions we'll simply watch the process. We will not question what we have allowed our society to become and our role in that. Instead of trying to find answers and solutions to what plagues our young people we will simply allow ourselves to believe that the district attorney of Lawrence county Pennsylvania has the answer. We won't seek out tough answers to tough questions. We won't modify anything in our society. We will certainly not modify our behaviour. No we won't do any of those things. What will we do? We'll simply blame the 11 YEAR OLD!
Robbie Hellstrom
About the Author
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Birthday Parties for 60 Year Olds
It's hard to plan a birthday party for a 60 year old. First off, they've already had 59 birthdays so it's going to be hard to come up with something original and they might not actually be happy at reaching 60!
Don't let that put you off though. It's a significant milestone, which should be celebrated and with a bit of thought and planning you'll be able to come up with a birthday party they'll love.
First of all, think about the sort of things they are interested in, or they are known for. It could be a hobby or pastime, their career or just something like their sense of humor. It can be something as specific as an old song they love, or as general as stamp collecting or knitting. You don't have to be bound by this, but it makes it a nice touch to incorporate it into the general theme of the party. So it their favorite movie is "Titanic" you could play the soundtrack while eating for instance.
If it's to be a formal dinner then you could do things with a black and white theme. The guests can wear black and white outfits and you could display some old black and white photos of them or even back and white videos or movies. If you want to go all out, how about using that "Titanic" theme?
If they are into movies you could actually have a red carpet at the venue and perhaps even give out some spoof awards to the guests, and of course, the person of honor.
Casino night is always fun. You can play poker, roulette or slots and have waiters serve drinks and appetizers. You can hire some people to be dealers/croupiers.
How about a spa party? You can rent a room at a spa and have massages and various treatments with a group of girlfriends.
If they are as young as they feel, a karaoke night is always good for a laugh. Another set of themes could be Mardi Gras, carnival or fiesta complete with costumes.
To make the party more memorable, get someone to be a photographer and take lots of pictures, or have disposable cameras on all the tables. You can then present them with a scrapbook afterwards, along with a guest book from the party, that they will treasure always.
About the Author
Tony Connor has been a forgetful last-minuter for many, many years. That didn't stop him starting a website, Bright Gift Ideas, with gift suggestions for everyone.
