America’s Parents ― Dogs In An Alley
May 1, 2008
I can remember that, as a child, my parents always warned me that if I acted badly, people would blame them for being bad parents.
As an adult, I now understand the wisdom of their admonishments.
And speaking of bad parents....
It’s always been puzzling to me how many Americans breed children with less concern than that which we give to the purchase of a new car.
And nothing has crystallized this thought more than the recent video-taped beating of Florida teenager Victoria Lindsay by a collective group of eight teenage peers.
Six teenage girls and their two teenage male “lookouts” lured Ms. Lindsay into the home of Mary Nichols, grandmother of 17-year-old perp Mercades Nichols, and then, according to Fox News, “they pummeled and pulverized the victim's face until it was unrecognizable even to the victim's mother.”
The six teenage perps video-taped the beating for a later re-airing on the Internet.
The beating was retaliation for the victim supposedly “trash talking” about one of the perps on MySpace.
CNN reported that, “The victim...was hospitalized, and still has blurred vision, hearing loss, and a swollen face”.
When arrested, CNN also reported that the six female perps “were laughing and joking about, 'I guess we won't get to go to the beach during spring break.' And one ... asked whether she could go to cheerleading practice”.
Is there a lawyer in the house?
The beating itself was nothing compared to the indictable reactions of the perpetrators’ progenitors.
People Magazine reported the collection of reactions from the “parents” of the perps...“(the) sheriff made a mountain out of a molehill...They’re kids, for goodness sakes...My daughter didn’t sleep the first two nights she was in jail”. Mercades Nichols’ grandmother, Mary, even seems to blame it all on the Internet before going to the old catchall...”I really believe these children need help, not jail.”
The child that Mary Nichols is talking about is her granddaughter, Mercades. Let’s look at that “child”.
Mercades, now 17, had a restraining order issued against her when she was 16 for stabbing her ex-boyfriend with a pen. At 16, she also became pregnant by this same ex-boyfriend but allegedly miscarried after two and one half months because this same ex-boyfriend kicked her in the stomach (revealed in a Greta Van Susteren interview with Mercades’ mother, Christina Garcia).
Mercades also violated her restraining order by accompanying the ex-boyfriend on a date to Busch Gardens with the tickets gratis of...you guessed it...grandmother Mary Nichols.
The “child” Mercades is now charged with felonious battery, false imprisonment and kidnapping.
But somehow, her mother, Christina Garcia, in agreement with her grandmother, thinks that “these children need evaluations through counselors” instead of “going to jail” (note the lesson Mercades learned after getting a walk on the stabbing incident).
In fact, Christina Garcia’s reaction to her daughter’s pregnancy was even more laughable, “...there is a lot of 17-year-old girls out there that get pregnant....”
Ahhh...the old “everybody does it defense”. I bet that isn’t going to work for the 31 of 53 teen girls at the FLDS ranch in Texas who are either pregnant or had a baby. Somehow, society sees it as acceptable for a heathen teen to get preggers.
In an ironic twist, Mercades’ mother, Christina, has a MySpace page where she airs her “family’s” dirty laundry.
On that page, Christina asks, “BUT DAM PEOPLE SHE IS 17 STILL HAS A TEENAGE MENTALITY, IF THIS WAS YOUR KID WHAT WOULD YOU DO?”
How about not waiting until your child is 17 and charged with felonies before deciding that she needs civilizing?
Or, better yet, let her face the consequences of her actions?
As an extraordinarily intelligent Conservative professional (and the parent of a military hero) remarked to me, “And I don't know about you, but if I had to spend 2 nights in jail when my parents came to pick me up they wouldn't be complaining that I didn't get any sleep while I was in there. In fact, my guess is that they would be threatening to leave me there until they were convinced that I learned my lesson and somehow redeemed myself for my sins. Besides, I'd probably be safer in the jail than I would be if I had to go home and get what would be waiting for me.”
But maybe...the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
In the aftermath of the beating, Christina Garcia has been working overtime to justify her daughter’s behavior instead of condemning it.
What credibility does Christina’s post-beating defense of her daughter have when she says that, “I HAVE ALWAYS HAD PEOPLE INTERFERING WITH HOW I DISCIPLINE MERCADES MY MOTHER FIRST TELLING ME THAT I SHOULD NOT SPANK HER...THE ONLY THING I AM GUILTY OF IS NOT HAVING THE BACK BONE TO STAND UP TO MY MOTHER AND SAY THIS IS MY KID AND I WILL DO WHAT I SEE FIT WITH HER”?
She is still justifying bad behavior and blaming everyone other than those responsible.
And speaking of responsibility....
The “victim”, Ms. Lindsay, wasn’t even living at home at the time of the beating. It seems that she wasn’t getting along with her “parents” and was living with...Mercades Nichols. Ms. Lindsay’s “real home” is with her father and step-mother (her “real” mother is serving a ten year prison sentence for a fatal stabbing).
Apparently, the teenagers involved in this beating were sown like weeds and have grown like weeds ever since.
It appears that much is expected from children while not much is expected from parents.
Mercades’ mother is correct when she complains that, “YOU CAN’T EVEN LOOK AT A CHILD WRONG IN WALMART WITHOUT GETTING THE POLICE CALLED ON YOU, THIS IS THE SOCIETY OUR CHILDREN ARE GROWING UP IN! THEY HAVE MORE CONTROL THEN WE DO THEY TAKE THE RIGHTS OF THE PARENTS AWAY AND THEN WHEN THE KIDS GET INTO TROUBLE POINT THE FINGERS AT THE PARENTS?? MAKE UP YOUR MINDS HERE”.
When government steps into the role of parent and says it’s OK to create children and let the taxpayer worry about the rest...what do you expect the outcome to be?
Have a child and expect the government to feed that child, give medical care to that child, educate that child, teach that child about sex and impart character to that child through a politically correct public education dogma.
Little wonder that insanity reigns.
Again from my accomplished Conservative friend, “I don't even know what to say about these people. They're corrupting civilization and there's nothing we can do about it except watch the destruction happen before our eyes.”
If you want to drive a car, you must first: take driver’s education; pass a licensing examination; come up with the money to buy a car; purchase liability insurance and then pay for the expenses of operating that car.
If you want to be a parent, all you have to do, if you are so inclined, is to spend a few moments in an alley like a stray dog...and then let someone else suffer the consequences of your propagation.
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