Almost every day, I read the news on news.yahoo.com. It offers information from sorces such as the AP, Reuters, NPR, USA Today, etc. Today, a story caught my attention, and I felt some commentary was seriously warranted.
The story goes like this. Katherine R. Lester, a straight-A student and student council member from Gilford, Michigan, meets a 25-year-old man on My Space, the so-called 'social networking' site. After a three month 'relationship,' Ms. Lester, 16, decides she wants to meet the man. She procedes to trick her parents into getting her a passport (did I mention the man was from Jericho?), secretly boards a flight to the West Bank (!), and, en route (in Jordan) is conviced by the FBI to go home.
Ms. Lester's parents had this to say. "(She has) never given (us) a day's trouble. ... I just don't understand with all these new laws protecting America how a 16-year-old kid could get out of the country."
What.
What?
What!?!?!?!?
I'm not even sure I know where to begin. The real point in posting this is not to jab at the young girl's incredible foolishness: she will, undoubtedly, suffer (and learn) from the ensuing consequences of her stupid decisions. No, the jab is for the parents. On one hand, I don't want to say anything about how these people reared their young: kids have free will and do things their parents wish they wouldn't. On the other hand, how much wool does one have to have over one's eyes to 1) not realize one's child is having a 3-month relationship with an adult in another country, 2) allow the child to obtain a passport at the child's request, and 3) not realize the child has purchased a plane ticket to the West Bank (!). Again, this very well could be a simple case of good parenting and a child's incredible disobedience. I'm not here to decide. But, when one realizes one's child has done something unthinkable, should one's first urge be to assign blame to the government? "I was completely in the dark about my offspring (see 1, 2, and 3), but WHY DIDN'T THE STUPID GOVERNMENT DO SOMETHING!!!!!"
Click here for the whole story.
4 comments:
hmmm interesting. This is why myspace is a very scary thing. And I also now understand and like the fact that mom and dad were always watching what I was doing on the internet. But now no one's watching and I have taken a shining to this fifty year old gentlemen from nigeria.....
oh and if you want an answer to your "strep throat" mockery please see that blog entry on my site. I answered your comment with a comment.
I believe you have hit it squarely, Max. When did our society begin placing responsibility upon everyone and anyone except the one responsible?
God forgive us.
By the way, in case her parents read this:
She told you she was leaving the country. That is how she was able to leave the country. (In case you haven't noticed, Canada is not in the United States.) And, you might want to thank the government agency who stopped her and convinced her to go home, since you were so unaware of her plans.
Weirdos.
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