I don't really find it so hard to believe that those with no hope for a future or those that have been either physically or mentally abused would carry out acts that shock. Not much notice goes to the violence that is experienced in our slum districts that lay in the shadows of wealth & power.

Alice, as an American parent, I'm offended by your statements that we bear the blame here. I'm sure you were expressing a raw gut feeling rather that a statement that was thought through. I know many others that don't rely on schools/baby-sitters for the nourishment of their children. That was not a very fair statement.

I see our schools as a reflection of our priorities. Teachers receive low pay. towns don't want to support a system if it means they're taxed. Discipline is more of a concern than education. The taunting, bullying & abuse that students suffer at the hands of other students is criminal but looked on with a blind eye & a turned back. I live in a town where the Superintendent of Schools just dragged a 9-yr.-old kid off a bus by the neck pinned him over a car & screamed at him. Why? Because the bus driver had a hard time with some of the other kids before this kid ever boarded. This is assault & battery, but within school systems, this is common. The bus is now empty. Both kids & parents are in fear. This fear & the fear of physical abuse by others that is allowed to continue unchecked is felt by many students & parents on a daily basis, but it takes a tragedy before some will take notice & then the causes & effects are studied, probed & processed & then forgotten.

Though I can see how these things happen, I can't understand the wasting of young life through either neglect or murder. It's as much a crime when a kid is a victim as it is when the grown kid victimizes another & yet we know this is a cycle. Does the kid as a victim get the aid needed (or the protection beforehand) so they won't victimize or does the grown kid receive the consequences of their actions (or chain reactions) when it's to late to do anyone any good?

I've posted this song before. The only difference in the background of the song would be that this tragic scene happened in the burbs & the focus of my song was the inner city.

NO TOMORROW FOR THE POOR by Barry Finn
Tune: Virginia Lags, Traditional

Inside the ghettos dwells the greatest of crimes
Where kids with no hope are serving their time
Where they're shocked into feeling that life has no price
They live and they die no tomorrow

With no higher learning, no place they can turn
They see daily the wealth from crime they can earn
They're under the gun every time that they turn
And we ask why they have no values

Their language is foreign; their culture is strange
There's slight chance for survival outside of a gang
To get life from drugs beats the pain of no change
There's no light at the end of their tunnel

There's abuse of all kinds that runs rampage with rage
And the cycle runs deeper with each passing age
Until lock them away is all we can say
They've been locked away all of their young lives

We'll draw cheap labor from them that'll slave
And watch while we help the rest into the grave
Keep them from good health, good schools, and good wage
And hope that there isn't a backlash

So now let us finish and shake hands with our fate
And don't be surprised when you're a victim of hate
What they've been robbed of to you they'll relate
You'll be hunted as prey by your victim


Copyright, Barry Finn 1997

Barry, who's for education with compassion.