Letter to the Editor

LETTERS: DOES EVERYONE GET ONE FREE SHOT?

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To the editor:

I would imagine the two young men sitting in jail in Jonesboro are completely and totally mystified by society's reaction to what they have done.

This is probably the first time they have ever done something wrong that a parent, a relative, an administrator, a social worker or someone threatening legal action has not come to their defense and gotten them off with no more than a lecture or a meaningless punishment. After all, even though they did kill five people and wound others, this was the first time they had ever done anything like that. And for the past 20 years we have been telling young people that the first time does not count. The homes, the schools and the courts have sent the message that all young people get at least one free shot.

I would not be surprised to learn that the two young people expected to get a slap on the wrist and then to be asked to be role models to discourage others from doing what they had done. I wonder how many assemblies they attended in which former drug addicts or others who had committed crimes spoke and received a hero's welcome and thunderous applause from students, administrators and teachers.

I am losing my patience with a society that glorifies violence, tells young people someone will always protect them from any meaningful consequences for their actions and preaches a message that morality and morals do not count, that it is the economy, stupid, and then wrings its collective hands and posture and agonizes over what went wrong when something like what happened in Jonesboro does happen.

LAWRENCE AESCHLIMANN

Cape Girardeau