Mortality

This is not what I set out to post about, but ever since I read this story this morning it is all that is running through my head. I, along with millions of other Americans watched in horror last week as the story of Kara Borden and David Ludwig unfolded. Kara, who is 14, got into an argument with her parents after she apparently was late getting home. She had been secretly seeing David, who is 18, and they also told her she couldn't see him anymore.

The argument apparently made David so angry that he plotted to kill her parents. Last weekend he came into their house and shot both of her parents, in front of her little sister, and then walked through the house calling for Kara while her little brother ran next door to call the police.
When the story broke Kara was missing. My assumption, and I'm sure several other people's, was that Kara had been kidnapped. This boy whom she thought she could trust had just slaughtered her parents and once he found her she feared for her life and so she went with him.

Today, the truth has come out. David walked through the house looking for Kara but could not find her. He then got into his car and began to drive off when he noticed her running after him. This girl, who knew this boy had just killed her parents, willing ran away with him hoping to get married and start a new life together.

People, how in the WORLD did it come to this? I'm trying to think back to being 14 (bear with me, it was awhile ago) and I know that I remember hating my parents. I know that I remember wishing that they would go away and leave me alone. I may have even wished they were dead, but I can GUARANTEE you, with 100% certainty that if someone (boyfriend or no boyfriend) had come into my house and shot them, the last thing you would find me doing was running after his car to go with him!!

Now, I have been told that at 14 most children are not fully aware that death is permanent. In fact, until children are 18 or 19 they are also not fully aware of their own mortality. This is the reason that teenagers tend to take more risks, drive more recklessly, and are now into playing the new choking game.

Just last night I watched an episode of CSI in which they portrayed a group of teenagers who had gotten bored with their video game and so they had decided to make it into real life. Now I understand that this is just a TV show, but there have been roomers that this is exactly the sort of thing that the boys did at Columbine. In the video game they shoot people for points. It doesn't hurt the imaginary people, they are just objects to be conquered. If children don't understand this line, or become desensitized to it, it could be easy for them not to fully understand what happens when someone is shot.

These excuses aside, our nation as a whole is becoming more and more violent. How do we make our children understand that violence is not a game? Especially when they see it on TV, watch it in the movies, and play it on video games?

I know how I understood it, but it is probably not the answer for everyone. I was a farmer's daughter. I saw hogs get slaughtered for the annual hog roast. I watched my parents bury our pets when they had been hit on the road. I was VERY aware that once someone or something died, it was never coming back. At the age of 13 I fell from a horse and broke my fall with my face. I blacked out and do not remember anything from the fall to the ambulance. I was also aware that I could be injured and could possibly die.

However, we can not take all of the children of the world out into the woods and let them watch someone hunt an animal. It's not practical, not to mention a little morbid for a school subject. So how do we do it? How do we make our children understand that killing someone in real life is not like it is in a video game? That their life is precious and that they can't do dangerous things without risking the possibility of ending of it?

I don't even have children yet, and it makes me want to put my imagined children in a bubble. My heart is SO sad for this girl. I know, or at least my optimistic heart hopes, that one day she will look back on this and be very sad. One day, probably in the near future, it is going to come crashing down on her that she will NEVER see her parents again. I hope, at that point, that someone is there for her. To hold her, to guide her, and to help her teach others so that this does not happen again.

In the end, I suppose it is up to each one of us. We need to address this problem head on, instead of sweeping it under the rug. If we don't ignore this type of violence, but instead talk with our children about it and help them to understand I think we can save several young lives. Maybe one of them will belong to someone you know.