Auntie Charo's Soapbox

One must read Amanda's comments about my opinion on Jeromy Newby's death from his beating from another high-school student from Southern High-School to get a 'feel' about how a teen might feel about the demise of that young boy and how easily his death is to forget, focusing on the living, using the 'forgiveness' as a prod to moving forward and 'getting over it'.
Dear me, I'm all for forgiving and yes, I'm sure that anger probably took over the boy, causing him to beat Jeromy up until he was nothing but a living vegetable, but to forgive without calling for justice just doesn't cut it for me. We can't say that it's Christmas or New Year and it's the season for forgiving and saying that the anger gor the best of someone and to move on after a life has been snuffed out. To do so means that we have de-valued the life of a human being. It means that we can kill again because when it happens, we can blame it on anger or insanity or something in that line of thinking and 'forgive' and move on, forgetting that a life's been taken.
Should I have been saddened because the boy who did the beating was in DYA the whole time the Newby family was in total chaos as they watched their boy's life slip away from them at the ICU unit at GMH? His being at DYA was a result of his choice of action and no one else's. He could have gone to school to learn on that October morning. But he chose to do something else.....and because he chose to do something else, he ended up at DYA, and Jeromy Newby ended up dead.
In time, the boy at DYA will either go to DOC or be released...either way, he'll be able to see his loved ones. He'll be able to hug and kiss his mother, maybe even have a girlfriend and get married, get a high-school diploma and or go to college. He'll have his life and have all the things that God created him to have, but because of what he did, Jeromy Newby will never have anything.....Jeromy and his family being cheated of all of the wonderful milestones a family usually celebrates.....
Yeah, I believe in forgiveness, but it's got to be mixed with justice and so far, no one's talking 'justice'.....but then again, I just can't understand why our children are so angry, so enraged, so mad at the world.
Have you ever made eye contact with a teenager at one of the mall food courts? Their eyes aren't the happy eyes of teens having a good time....or looking to have a good time...they have the eyes of teens mad at the world and if you can't read it in their eyes.....you can read it on their tee-shirts.
So sad.....these times.....!