Look in the mirror...

I took an interesting look in the mirror last night.

I was loading my dishwasher and cleaning my kitchen with the TV on. It was 10:00 and the local news was coming on. The newscasters were all excited that George Mason had upset North Carolina to make it to the Sweet-16 for the first time in school history. But, before they could talk sports, there was "Breaking News" out of Prince George's county...

It seems as though 3 kids, all under the age of 13, had stolen a minivan and were speeding down a street called Livingston Road in a town called Oxon Hill. They passed a police car which made a U-Turn behind them just in time to see the van crash at high speed into a utility pole. The newscaster said, "All three youngsters were rushed to the hospital in critical condition..."

I glanced at the TV and then turned back to the dishwasher and started pulling out my silverware. After about a minute I realized that I didn't even bat an eyelash at the fact that these three kids were in some hospital at that very moment hovering between life and death. I wondered what that said about me.

I was looking in the mirror, and wasn't sure what I was seeing.

With me, I'm a bottom line thinker. To me, 98% of all things are either black or white, with little to no gray. They are either good or bad, right or wrong and that is usually - THAT!

So, I think when I heard some kids had stolen a van and had wrapped themselves around a pole - what was most important to me was what I didn't hear. I didn't hear about any innocent bystanders getting hurt or killed. That is what is most important to me when these little hoodlums decide to show their asses. I always worry about the innocent law-abiding citizens that fall victim to these heartless little bastards that steal cars and go speeding through red lights and hot-wheeling down quiet child filled streets hurting and killing anyone in their way.

It didn't matter that these were kids. 13 or 30, it didn't matter. Yeah - that might be a heartless way to be, but damn-it, it is how I am. These kids went tearing down a pretty busy street [I've driven right past the place where they crashed plenty of times] it is no small miracle that no one else was killed by these foolish little uncaring monsters. I'm sure plenty of people will whine and say, 'oh, these kids were probably disadvantaged...' or 'they just didn't understand what they were doing...'

While these people will coddle and make excuses for the ever growing criminal element spreading through our younger community. I look in the mirror and see the bottom line. Sometimes it is just US vs THEM. So, when WE don't take a loss and THEY do, I look at it as a good thing.

TTBM


My cause of the month...
(Make Exxon pay for the Valdez) http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/262707_exxonsettle13.html