It is unfortunate that the words “family values” have become political speak setting off stale political arguments for the right and left. Republicans make it running mantra that family is number one, and Democrats struggle to include similar philosophies in their arguments while attempting not to sound too much like their Republican opponents.
The fact is society needs to do a better job raising our families. Whether it is our family, our family of friends, our University family or the collective family of Americans, we need to take better care of ourselves.
News that a 15-year-old Florida boy emulated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by crashing a small plane into a Bank of America building in Tampa, Fla., Jan. 5 should alarm us all. According to media accounts, Charles Bishop’s suicide note made sympathetic references to Osama bin Laden, the supposed mastermind of Sept. 11. While this is clearly an isolated act of one deranged individual, it is a symptom of our society ills.
There have always been individuals who commit horrible crimes out of warped perceptions of the world. But history presents a cast of mostly adult men at the hands of the world’s atrocities. Now teenagers – the ones who are affected most by the world, or family, around them – are getting into the mix.
We must take responsibility for the actions of people in our community. And we must see it as our responsibility to take care of one another. This means actively searching for problems in our respective families, attempting to relieve problems through action and seeking help when we are not able to provide it ourselves.
Three years ago, 13 students at Columbine High School died at the hands of teenage boys described as mostly unpopular and unaccepted. The Columbine teens were described as loners. Bishop was described as quiet in school with out of touch parents. He also was described as a loner.
It is now 2002 and the world is only getting complicated for teenagers. The number of “loners” is increasing, and the ways to act out brutal crimes are getting more extensive and creative. There is no changing that, but there is one thing we can do to help prevent it – listening.
When we take time to listen to each other, seek others out to understand them and open ourselves more to our own families, we are creating a world where fewer teenagers will commit heinous crimes in an attempt to be heard or recognized.
Starting with our own limited GW family, we need to cut through rhetoric and get a better sense of family values. We need to do more to look out for one another by putting aside preconceived notions, prejudice or fear of entering new territory. Our countless extended families will thank us for it.
