Once again, we have a senseless death and once again, I am amused. Yes, amused.
Once again parents of the deceased did not know what he was up to, and cannot answer questions that would indicate even basic responsibility of their child.
Sources said the couple could not offer any information about what their son was doing at Fatman Lane or if he knew anyone who owned a gun.
Am I being unduly harsh to grieving parents? I think not, despite my empathy. I know what I would feel if something happens to Punks.
In preliminary statements to the police, the couple described their son as an avid footballer who wanted to play for the national team and said he was active in several sports at school.
"He was a child with promise and great potential," said the onlooker.
Yes, I know the reporter probably went for this angle of the story, trying to find someone to say something good about the deceased.
But I have to ask, what promise? What potential? To want to be on the national football team is not enough. Hell, everyone who dies in a crime, from bandit to victim, is always labelled as having this dream, that potential, while the reality is far, far removed.
A 16 or 17 year old mother is stabbed and killed and she is described as wanting to be a psychologist, (for example). Any realistic chance of that happening? Not hardly, simply because she already lacked the foundation of the education necessary, and had her time occupied by children. Maybe later in life had she lived, or if she had a lot of assistance. But the reality is that she would have continued dreaming, and continued getting knocked up by different men and pretty soon she would have looked like she was in her 40's and have 12 children struggling along in her footsteps. That is the reality. I've seen it time and time again.
The reality for this young victim, sadly not stated but easily understood, is that he was well on the way to become yet another bandit, another uneducated, angry young predator whose only skill would have been mediocre football skills in his teenage years. He was already admiring living with the gun, if not actually living with the gun.
Isn't it scary though that 15 years old young men can have access to guns? I didn't see my first gun until I went to the shooting range with friends. I still have not yet held one, much less fired one. I know, that's no measuring yardstick. Despite my middle years I have yet to see what marijuana or cocaine look like in real; I've only ever seen movies and pictures.
And though I sound uncaring and harsh, sometimes the human side of me, the weak side that thinks too much, thinks that maybe it's better the one life now, than many in the future.
