It just amazes me how the children of this world are being brought up
these days. Let me tell you all a little story about what happened while
my girlfriend and I were walking our dogs.
Masukomi and I walked to the park and sat at a picnic table, facing out
away from the table itself, talking and watching the darkness set in since
the sun was gone. We discussed this and that...and our attention turned
to children playing in front of us on a broad stretch of concrete, built
as the base for a timed fountain. I mentioned something about how children
are almost being forced to grow up and mature faster these days, and we
debated on that for a bit...then watched as an argument and then a fight
broke out between several boys whom had been playing.
These children were aged between the 4th and 5th grades, and every other
word out of their mouths was a profanity of some kind...they called each
other "fags" and commented that one of the enemy "smelled
like shit" and more, far worse things. They threw pine cones at each
other, screaming taunts and curses, and their parents stood behind this
whole thing, allowing it to go on. One boy was beat up by another, and walked
away, only to come back, screaming at the boy who had beat him up, saying
things I only expected to hear on a CB radio in a conversation between two
angry truck drivers. What happened after were threats on both sides
for a fight...throwing of pine cones and more profanity. The boy who had
gotten beat up kept prodding for more, even after he had been bested twice...so
not only was he weak, but he was a moron. His logic must have been to look
tough and suffer the pain of being hurt physically, instead of dealing with
the "worse" pain of "running away." In this whole process,
our dog, Ebony, was hit twice in the face with pine cones by the moron kid who was aiming for the other boy,
while the other just sat on a bench, not doing anything. Only after masu
and I getting up and threatening to maim the moron boy if he threw another pine cone even remotely in our direction, did he and his sister
stop throwing things and turned and walked back to their parents, cursing loudly
as us and the other boy.
Sometimes I just sit and think about these things...and it bothers me
how many children lose their innocence and open mindedness so early...and
I worry about my future children. It's times like these that make me miss
my own long-lost innocence and pray for miracles.