reply to post by bluemirage5
Well, yes, it is impossible for two-income families to pick their kids up from school. A large number of kids ride the buses, and they will have to
at least walk home from the bus stop. Plus, you didn't distinguish between how it is any different to walk home from school, than it is to walk to a
friend's house, or walk to the store. Should we live in a country where no kid can ever play outside on their own?
The law won't help, but it will set an example for the kids that we should give in to the violence. Setting the law, means we have given up that we
can actually make the neighborhoods safe, and instead we have settled for locking ourselves indoors for our own good.
My solution has 3 parts:
1. My kids are 4 and 3, and they would already be wary of a stranger. They would already be confident enough to fight and make a scene. They
already know the family password, and they won't leave with anybody, not even a close family friend, without the password. We need to raise smart,
responsible, confident kids that can avoid bad situations, and get help if they are caught off guard by one. They need to be intelligent and savvy,
and they need to know basic survival skills for their neighborhood. They don't have to be blackbelts, or carry a gun, but they need the skills to
not be cornered by a stranger, not be alone in an isolated area, not walk up to a car window, be polite to a point, but know when to get scared and/or
angry and make scene.
2. Parents do need to watch their kids as much as possible. So do friends and neighbors and other kids. People from the neighborhood should not be
afraid to ask what is going on, or intervene in a situation that smells funny. It might be nothing more than saying, "Hi Tommy, who is your new
friend? Your mom wanted me to give you some stuff to take home with you." It just takes a little bit of interference and a chance to escape. It
might be a kick in the nuts and a run to the nearest busy intersection. Whatever it is, we should all be vigilant in what is going on in our own
neighborhoods.
3. When that rare evil predator shows up. He should be dealt with publicly. Hung from the streetlights. Drug through the streets. Impaled at the
end of the driveway. Whatever it takes! Criminals face death in their normal daily business. The death penalty is not a deterrent. Doing time in
jail just gives them street cred. But, if they know the vigilantes in a neighborhood are going to skin them alive and let the rats nibble them to
death, that is a little more of a deterrent. I have made it clear to even my closes friends, family, and in-laws, that they should pray for jail if
they are ever guilty of intentionally harming my kids. In fact, I have told them the same things about ever frivolously calling the authorities like
DCF. The penalties for harming my children in any way, or coming between me and my children in any way, are far more medieval than anything the law
will allow. I can't advertise it, but most crimes are done by somebody that we know, or at least a friend of a friend or a random acquaintance. I
hope my attitude is readily apparent enough that it filters through those 6 degrees of separation, and nobody will ever consider my child as a target!
Of course we can never stop it all. Just like we can't stop all spider bites, or meteors crashing into our homes, or tornadoes, or floods. We will
never be 100% safe, and that is why I don't believe it is acceptable to continually make more laws to try and achieve 100% safety. When each new law
fails, we just get more and more and more restrictive, until kids are educated in padded cells, and adults stay at home with the doors locked, and
police patrol the streets and make random welfare checks without cause. We can't start down that slippery slope. This is not a job for the
government. This is a job for parents, families, and neighborhoods.