I went by my house on North Trail and the place is nearly under water with the heavy rains we have been getting. I drop by often to pick up any mail that is delivered there, feed the cat, Mr. Belvedere, who took up residence there after I moved out and check for any sign of trespassing. When I went to open the mailbox out by the road there is nothing there but a square post with nothing on top. No evidence of any broken pieces, no tire tracks just no mailbox. I drove down to the next mailbox or I should say the location of where the mailbox should be. No Mailbox there either. I had noticed a week earlier that one of the other neighbors were missing their mailbox.
My question is: was this fun?
The vandalism is a bother. I am relatively unaffected by it other than having to replace a missing mailbox. But it makes me wonder about the people who consider this fun. At school I watch teens coming and going dropping trash on the ground in the newly landscaped patio area. They pull up the paving stones in the patio area and throw them aside. In the clean hallway they jump up and shove the ceiling tiles upward, breaking them in half over and over again, leaving a path of destruction. They write on the walls, the desks, the outside bricks. They break sinks off at the wall if they have enough time. Break the water fountains so that they can not be used to get a drink. I have even heard of some urinating in the hallway. I watch this vandalism with wonder. Not awe and wonder but rather with inquisitive wonder.
I wonder what kind of creature poops in their own den. Even a dog goes outside of their territory to do their business.
Well maybe they do not consider their school as being theirs?!
Okay, while house shopping with Daniel this year I went into a home occupied by two of my former students, girls, sweet girls. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the way they lived. Grafitti was plastered all over their walls. Not even pretty grafitti but rather ugly black markings like you find on public bathroom walls, messages, phone numbers, etc. I mean covering the walls, not just a little mark here and there but rather everywhere.
It was so ugly.
I wonder if these children, teens, soon to be adults will ever come to realize their destructiveness and change? Or will this cycle reoccur with the next generation?
Is it simply a case of living among so much proverty that they do not realize that better is attainable?
I worry. How sad for them.
Oh my, how often I feel the same way. I feel that it is a release of some kind and that some may feel the only say they have (or feel that they have) over things in their lives is with the things they touch. Pressure is everywhere for kids and teens and they haven't learned good ways to vent or deal with the emotions. But I agree that it is sad because I had these same feelings and emotions yet never tore up anything or did damage to anything. I was raised better than that. I find it sad that so many kids don't have parents that care for any one else but themselves.... And yes, it will spiral down from here...
ReplyDeleteI often have to remind myself that poverty appears in many different forms. The worst is the poverty of the soul. It is a poverty that really does not care for another. Whether that 'another' is an object or a person . . . or themselves, the emptiness that one feels that compels them to do poorly unto others must be heartwrenching (sp?).
ReplyDelete