Crapola

Well, friends, I return, emboldened by your many encouragements. Not much happening, life goes on in much the same strain as it has these past few years. Ho, hum and all that. Do you guys remember Denicola, the self-proclaimed "Supreme Puntiff"? Well, he's wanting to get a new apartment or house after the new year and hopes I can join him. I'd like to, but the money has to work out, and it would require moving to Portland, which, although it's only a few miles away, is another state and has different taxes and such. Also it would be nice to have a job there, so I don't have to commute across the river. So, a lot of things would have to work out and it's likely I'll just continue to sit here in my little hole in my parents' basement with an obnoxious sixteen-year-old brother who seems to have forgotten he's not six. And how are you guys?

Today at school I was called into a classroom (I carry a walkie-talkie) to help restrain a wild child. The scary thing was he was very calm. With a steady voice and steeley stare he could look adults in the eye and tell them he'd kill them when he was older, although he'd rather we die before then so he wouldn't go to jail. I guess this is what psychopaths are made of? But the sad thing is I don't think it's a question of insanity for the most part. Perhaps a spiritual insanity, if possible, but putting him on Prozac won't save his soul, will it? I felt bad for his dad (came from work to pick him up) he said straight up he didn't know what to do. Of course the principal reccommended taking him to a doctor for a complete physical (meaning get some prescriptions). But I believe his dad. He doesn't know what to do: never has and never will, because he and his wife both work like dogs all day trying to give their kid the American Dream, all the while unintentionally adding to what is in reality an American Nightmare.

This kid was only seven or eight, I guess, but the public schools are really a microcosm of today's societal values. I've worked at all three pre-college levels (elementary, middle, high) and have seen a lot of crazy things. You know, a lot of people see teens acting immature and obdurate towards adults and one another and they say that "kids will be kids" or "they'll grow out of it". But I know better. They won't. That's what our society has decided. We can be kids forever. We should be! Work your ass off (both of you!) so you can buy that new SUV for fifty grand so you can take your one or two ungrateful, spoiled brates to soccer practice (after you pick them up from daycare) then seize the weekend! Go biking in wedgie-making spandex clown uniforms or go mow the lawn or paint the house. Make sure you keep the kids happy with computer games while you're doing that, then go back to work, rinse and repeat. You've heard of old age being a second childhood: it's no longer separated by a period of mature adulthood. Sure, people get older all the time, but not wiser.

Childhood is for the innocent, people. And, sadly, innocence is being ripped out of kids earlier every day. I don't remember ever thinking I wanted to kill anyone, certainly not adults. But isn't that how adults think now? Well, if you don't do what I want, when I want it, how I want it, I'll divorce/insult/rob/slander/murder you. That's how people act, but at least they never have to grow up. Well, hope this cheered you all up. We may not have a hope for the future of our government, but at least sixty-year-olds still have active sex drives. It's the American Dream taken to the max, baby.