the truth really hurts,our sick society today

tom t

SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counsellors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbour's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch lis t and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy

F1nut

Sadly, that nails it.

4406bbl

Yes, thats about where we are at.

obieone

Hell, you don't have to go to '57. You could probably only have to go back to '77.

tom t

your right ,77 would of been fine. but look at where we are at today. some of this might be a little much,but we are real close. and thats the sad part

moe

SAD but TRUE! I never thought it would all change so quickly.

obieone

I think you nailed it. I've heard of almost everyone of those ACTUAL scenario's.

nooshinjohn

I used to take a pocket knife to school almost daily... now a plastic butter knife is a trip to Juvi..

BeRad

77, Hell, 87 was all good (except for the paddlin')

It would have been 87 or 88 when I got the ruler from the principal. I was probably the last kid in Canada to get it! lol I'll tell you this much, I never got sent to the principals office again after that!

nooshinjohn

deleted

comfortablycurt

Well, I wasn't around back in 57...but this pretty much nails it. I went to school in the mid/late 90's and started high school in 2000. It was already pretty bad back then...but it seems like a lot of this stuff has really gotten worse even since I got out of school. Kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore.

Ender

The first three scenarios are somewhat plausible, but the rest seem a bit over the top.

BeRad

Ender wrote: »

The first three scenarios are somewhat plausible, but the rest seem a bit over the top.

Give it time. In just a couple more years they will all have actually happened verbatim!

danger boy

but, but, but..

you forgot..


1959, man of the house supports family of 5 and leads a productive life

2009, man of the house shoots family of 5, then takes own life.

fatchowmein

How do you fix it?

Is this how Rome fell?

Does the pendulum shift and start to swing in the opposite direction at some point in time?

Are we too secure and only a huge external threat like WWIII will things start to move back in the opposite direction?

We recognize the problem but are we the minority here?

tom t

fatchowmein, you are correct. i think we are to far gone. we are such a political correct country now.

venomclan

Get rid of lawyers and political correction, and most will be solved.

Stop trying to level the playing field for everyone and let nature take it's course again.
V

pmckeealaska

Granted we've have become grossly too PC but why are the 1950's held up as some paragon of virtue? The 50's also had segregation, violent racism, McCarthyism, and numerous other social evils. I think we've just traded one kind of idiocy for another, but I'll still take now over then.

Ender

pmckeealaska wrote: »

Granted we've have become grossly too PC but why are the 1950's held up as some paragon of virtue? The 50's also had segregation, violent racism, McCarthyism, and numerous other social evils. I think we've just traded one kind of idiocy for another, but I'll still take now over then.

QFT. These were my thoughts as I was reading this thread.

Also, imo, lawyers enforce many of the values we uphold today. Don't villify lawyers just because. True, they do some damage to our society, but they also do much good.

Another also, people have done terrible things since the beginning of human history.

Remember this one?

1945: A man gathered and convinced a nation-state that they are better than everyone else and it was ok to be massacring millions of people of whom they have no clue. The massacring comes to fruition. Then he commits suicide with his family.
2000: A man convinced a nation-state that they could make things right in another country of whom they had no clue of culture or history or social norms. The 'liberating' comes to fruition. Nation-state is still stuck in a conflict and continues to lose young people in that conflict with no clear signs of progress.

Or this one.

1950: A man beats his woman. Neighbors whisper about terrible things. Man continues to beat woman. End of story.
2000: A man beats his woman. She now has the option to call the cops on him or at least find shelter with certain social services.

chef-nick

there is an ancient proverb
if your plan is for one year, plant rice
if your plan is for ten years, plant trees
if your plan is for one hundred years, teach your children.

if starting today every single parent simply loves their children, teaches them to be good citizens and treats them like real people everything will eventually be better.

bobman1235

chef-nick wrote: »

there is an ancient proverb
if your plan is for one year, plant rice
if your plan is for ten years, plant trees
if your plan is for one hundred years, teach your children.

if starting today every single parent simply loves their children, teaches them to be good citizens and treats them like real people everything will eventually be better.

I wouldn't hold your breath there chef.

wizzy

1957 - Everything you hear about is filtered through a soft furry lens of three TV channels, with concerted propaganda effort in place to paint rosy pictures about everything America. Every isolated idiotic thing never made the news.

2007 - You have a more realistic view of what is going on with crime and everyday events through 100x fold more TV channels and Internet. Government/Corporate "influence" of media outlets greatly reduced due to greater freedom of press and more outlets. Every little idiotic thing is amplified ten fold and harped on by news channels pressed to grab eyeballs running 24x7

Sorry, but no matter what time you are in there's always someone saying "things were better in the olden days"

cnh

Anyone remember that T. Paxton song about One Million Lawyers. What do you do when you have that many attorneys! How do they all find 'work'? Nothing wrong with being a lawyer but we don't need that many!

Society has, indeed, become more litigious since I was a kid...now if only everyone would stop saying....'well I may fall back on LAW" and get into some 'other' professions this country needs....we might have fewer domains for the Law to 'expand' into?

Of course that's not the only problem here, nor the main cause. But it's in the mix.

cnh

ntculenuff

sad sad sad...
had a friends 6 yr old son kicked out of a christian school a few years ago for hugging a girl on the playground. it was considered inappropriate touching behavior and the parents were informed that they should seek some professional help for him and his aggressive nature. WTF ??? the kid is a good kid and hugged everyone

Ender

ntculenuff wrote: »

sad sad sad...
had a friends 6 yr old son kicked out of a christian school a few years ago for hugging a girl on the playground. it was considered inappropriate touching behavior and the parents were informed that they should seek some professional help for him and his aggressive nature. WTF ??? the kid is a good kid and hugged everyone

Lol. That's not something wrong with our society. That's something wrong with that school.

vlam

The bottom line is that we have come a long way (at least in my 40 years of life experience) but we have also gone backward in a lot of ways. My biggest complain is the lack of a family structure.

cnh

I hate to say this, but I'm a first born American of European descent. And the American 'family' pales before the traditions I come from. Divorce rates in this country, adultery, blended families. There is a 'lot' of talk about family values but statistics don't support that even among those who claim to espouse such 'values'?

I'm not really disagreeing with anyone here! I just find a lot of immigrant families have much better records on such matters (immigrants that come from cultures where family was central).

cnh

steveinaz

Some parents have no balls. They want to be junior's best friend instead of his parent. The two don't mix. Being a good parent is sometimes an unpopular role, if you can't take the heat--please, do us all a favor, don't have children.

steveinaz

cnh wrote: »

I hate to say this, but I'm a first born American of European descent. And the American 'family' pales before the traditions I come from.
cnh

That's because what you have observed over the last 20 years doesn't even remotely reflect my childhood as an American. Thanks to my parents for balancing discipline with allowing us to grow and make the occasional mistake, I had a wonderful childhood.

NJPOLKER

tomt
Since I have a 13yr old and a 10 yr old I can relate to the concerns a lot of us have.
It is really sad that this is happening right now in all of our schools. This situation has been building for a long time and will take far too long to correct it, maybe too long to ever be corrected.
I remember when my older brother brought his Winchester Model 21 shotgun into school for show and tell. It was a birthday present (13 yrs old) which he wanted to show his friends. He broke it down, packed it up and brought it to school and no one thought anything but how lucky he was. My brother will give this gun to his son and so it goes, beautiful.
Today my son can't even talk about a gun in school.
I was told he should not bring his baseball bat into school, he plays for the school team!
The golf instructor told me they don't want the kids bringing there golf clubs to school.
And it's not a logistical thing.
When I discuss these things with the principals and school superintendent they are guarded with there words which leads me to believe they are doing nothing but covering there own asses. You/I can't blame them totally when parents are so very ignorant, incompetent, lazy, stupid, clueless, selfish and so on.
I think this whole thing started with the parents not parenting. Now it may have to be the voters who must do the "right" thing and after this past election we are in a whole lot of trouble. God bless the children.

disneyjoe7

Just tell me where I can live like it's 1957 again.