Out on a Limb

Today the Edmonton Journal reported that two 12-year old girls had been charged in a series of robberies in the city. According to the article, a group of young girls surrounded an 18 year old young woman and robbed her. This swarming technique was used on 3 different occasions in West Edmonton Mall about a month ago. This story is simply shocking.

What on earth is going on? 12 year old girls? Has the world gone completely mad?

If that wasn't enough of a shocker, there was a small piece in the paper reporting that in Amsterdam, law-makers have passed a law which allows for gay sex in a public park.

Here's a quote:

Paul van Grieken, an Alderman in the Oud-Zuid district of the city, has startled many Amsterdammers, despite their famously liberal attitudes, with plans to allow public sex as part of this summer's new rules of conduct for the country's best-known park.

"Why should we try to impose something that is actually impossible to impose, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually means much pleasure?", he said.

Amsterdam's beautiful Vondelpark in the centre of city draws hordes of summer visitors, families, skaters and joggers.

Here's a thought: What about CHILDREN? How can it be appropriate to allow sex (gay or straight) in a public park, where children are more than likely to see it?

This is pure insanity!

If this is the kind of world that we are living in, it's little wonder that we've got 12 year old girls swarming around people and robbing them! Let me be clear: I'm not saying that viewing public sex is going to cause children to become criminals, but I am arguing that the debasing of morality in our society will have a wide range of negative implications on upcoming generations.

Let me say it again: I am NOT making any direct connection between these two stories. But when we hear about 12 year olds swarming and robbing people, and we ask 'How on earth can this happen?', I think we need to pause and think about the context in which many children are being raised. What level of family support are they receiving? What kind of moral compass are they being given? What messages are they being exposed to?

Maybe I'm going out on a limb by writing all this, and I certainly run the risk of offending some people, but as Richard Simmons used to say, "STOP THE INSANITY!"

Things need to change in our society or else 12-year old girls robbing people at knife-point will seem tame compared to what we'll be dealing with in the future!

Maybe Eliot Spitzer wishes he'd been a governor somewhere in Europe, because he'd certainly still have his job!