Stop a Massacre, Talk To Your Kids

by Nic Haralambous on 17/04/2007

I am saddened, shocked, appalled and confused by the horrible massacre at Virginia Tech. There is no way to express feeling toward this incident other than horror, terror and fear for our culture and society.

I am not going to talk about how incredibly unbelievable it is that a person can mow down 30+ innocents and then not have the damn guts to live and face the consequences. Coward.

I am going to say a few short words about food, computers and gaming consoles. Parents need to get their priorities straight. They need to place family at the forefront of their lives they need to make work important but not the only thing. They need to interact with their significant other in a way that is suitable for a child to witness, if you can”t do that, get divorced and live happily apart rather than unhappily together.

Parents need to curb their childrens gaming time. They also need to monitor the purchasing games that illustrate death, ganstars, theft, murder, demons and all that jazz. I am not saying stop altogether, that is not realistic either. I am also not blaming this or any other massacre on television, games, the internet, movies or music. I am blaming it on the individual who committed the act, but askig for those who knew him to wake up and notice the patterns.

What patterns? Well, you cannot tell me that this guy simply snapped one day swung by a gunshot, picked it up and popped on over to the nearest school and murdered people. There was a build up, a slow change in his mentality, behaviour, demeanour and other things. There were people who chose not to see this kid, there were people who were so self centered that they didn’t see that he was plotting a masacre.

All I am saying is take the time to balance your life, to include those who love you and those you love, do not ignore them for your success. There is always enough time if you want there to be enough time. Always.

nharalambous@gmail.com

There are 6 comments in this article:

  1. 17/04/2007Linda says:

    I am completely in agreement with you. Core values are being neglected and the youth are forming their brains and opinions around gaming and television. Sad state of affairs that they spend more time watching a screen than chatting or interacting with their parents. And reading seems to have become an extremely old fashioned way of entertainment. I was shocked at the spelling of most teenagers…

  2. 17/04/2007Nic says:

    Thanks Linda, I agree with you 100%, people think that skimming a search engine and reading the instructions on your new ps3/xbox game count as actual reading. Pah! What a load! Kids need to be kids sometime, just a bit of a balance is really all i am asking for!

  3. 18/04/2007Steve Hayes says:

    We talk about moral regeneration and ubuntu and stuff like that, but moral degeneration proceeds apace, and ubuntu is a fading memory.

  4. 22/04/2007Sheetal Makhan says:

    This was so fantastically well-written, Nic :) Your emotions were definitely high when you posted this. No one really thinks about the killer as a coward, which he is – he couldn’t live to face the consequences.

    There’s just too much of this going on right now… I wish the world would just reach a sense of normality once and for all. It will take time, and positive people (like you) who will add to the betterment of our state of living.

  5. 24/04/2007Ross says:

    Nic you are 100% right. There is a distinct pattern here. A different angle tho, it really does seem that the kids doing this all have the same place in society. I FIRMLY believe that when people, especially young people, are constantly driven into the ground by society, and yes im talking about through little things such as bullying and ridicule over extended periods of time, that they can lose their way mentally and end up making rash decisions. In all these cases i think these kids are squeezed out of mainstream society, lose a sense of selfworth, and that mixed with deranged fantasies, inspired perhaps by videogames/movies etc etc, makes for one hell of an explosive cocktail if you know what i mean. lets be fair here this has happened enough for us to notice a pattern and there are undoubtedly some social drivers that need to be addressed. Its Very easy for mainstream society to focus on this terrible thing that this horrible asian boy has done, after all it is not mainstream society that is affected as negatively by certain social pressures. We all live in our ideolistic safety bubble in which these things should idealistically never happen, BUT after all we are all only human with human minds and if they are twisted, stretched, and tourmented too much i think they will break. Think the powers that be need to focus on cause rather than consequence in these situations, after all its not exactly your typical highschool jock, hometown hero, “model citizen”, taking aim here, but it is the proverbial him who probaby beat this kid up for ten years straight calling him a useless little china man (ok a bad example but you get my point?). Agree dissagree, thats just my opinion. This is long but not really for your blog per say, rather just for you. i know most people will disagree with me and i dont want to come across as the guy who advocates mass murder, which i am not doing here.

    Respect nic,
    Ciao.

  6. 24/04/2007Nic says:

    Very well said Alf!

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