I have read stories of neglectful, disrespectful, and just downright cruel parents, but this is the most unbelievably disturbing story i have ever read. Growing up in a “normal” household, one cannot even begin to fathom how a parent can treat their own flesh and blood in such, pardon my language, a fucked up way. It is so hard to believe that an entire family could gang up on a small child for absolutely no reason, and they even go to as far as trying to get the poor kid to end his own life. I have heard of unconditional love between a parent and their offspring, but this is the worst case of unconditional hate I have ever read about. No matter the situation, I will never think that it is okay to advantage of a child in any way. In my opinion, I do not blame this man for killing his parents one bit. This child had to live his entire childhood in fear of being raped and killed every day for years. In my eyes, they took away his life before he took theirs. He was so used to living in fear of everything around him that he was unable to love people he cared about because he had never had anybody care about him. The feeling of love has to be unnatural to him and he will never be able to fully trust another human being other than himself. Perhaps the worst part the parents did to this boy was tell his teachers and all the kids around him, people he could have been friends with, that he was a lying, devilish person who deserved no sympathy whatsoever. This prevented the kid from going to any outsiders for help or safety. By doing this, the family could now continue their terrible acts upon him without the risk of any intervention or punishment. His classmates alienated him leaving the boy with no chance of compassion from another living soul. I honestly am amazed that despite all of these circumstances, this kid stood strong and did not give in to his parents’ wish to end his life. This is a prime example that some people in prison are actually locked up for reasons outside of their control and that they are not terrible, soulless, evil people.

Religion is indeed dying off as the years pass by. I have wondered this myself and the data in this article just proves that point. I think there are a number of reasons for this. I believe that religion was so much more popular hundreds of years ago because people had so much free time and the lack of technology and scientific research left many questions unanswered. This lack of knowledge led people to turn to god and religions to explain the phenomena’s of the things that happened around them. When farmers had a dry season that gave them a poor quantity and quality of crops, they prayed to the sun gods and performed religious ceremonies and rituals in hopes that the next season would be better. When a tornado tore through entire cities and killed a number of citizens, the town’s people looked at it as a punishment from a higher power, not a natural disaster. As the years passed by and technology improved and more research was completed, many of the world’s mysteries were being unraveled and explained with rational reasoning in place of religious reasoning.
I also think that the downfall of religion is related to the world’s population being so work-oriented and not having as much free time as previous generations had. Most religions reserve an entire day dedicated specifically to worship of their god or gods. Today, many people work five, six, sometimes seven days a week and do not have any time to devote to practicing a religion. Entire towns used to be shut down on Sundays so that every single person who lived there would go to their local place of worship and praise god, whoever that may be to them. The article also mentioned how as more people become disaffiliated with religious groups, the more inclined others will be to conform to them and follow their actions (or should I say lack thereof). When religion was so popular and entire towns went to worship together, it would be much harder to stay at home and not join them. Today, the opposite is true. It is much easier for people to disaffiliate from being involved with any religion because that is slowly becoming the norm.

You don’t know what you have until it is gone. I find this especially pertains to one’s meaning of freedom. On the outside, it is much tougher to find a person who defines freedom by their mental being and not by a physical standard. Most of us think that imprisonment would strip all of us of our freedom completely. The thought of being stuck in a prison cell for a majority of the hours of the day would make most of us say that we have been cut off from freedom in all aspects. After reading several writing entries from lifers, the majority of people who see freedom as the liberty to make choices without restrictions are those who are behind bars. To me personally, freedom is having the right to make decisions without interference or influence by others. That includes going wherever I wish, whenever I want without restrictions of hindrance outsiders. Now, is my belief of “physical freedom” only existent because I have not yet been in jail and stripped of liberty to roam anywhere I please? Perhaps, but I will never be able to know for sure unless I am set to live in those circumstances. I am certain that all of these men serving these life sentences would not have a mindset anywhere close to the one they currently possess with this total freedom attitude even while confined. The kind of freedom these lifers describe can only be obtained after all physical freedoms are removed entirely (i.e. living in an 8 x 8 jail cell year after year). In doing this, only then can one access their inner being and become truly spiritual and/or make their connection to god. When left alone with his or her own thoughts, one can reflect on the past and figure out the true meaning of life and figure out what is truly important. Once this isolation has been established for a long period of time and the person has had a substantial amount of time to contemplate their previous actions, only then can this “freedom” that the lifers speak of be obtained.

I have read numerous stories of financial strugglers winning the lottery and, within a short period of time, ending up in their initial position money-wise. I think the reason for this is the similar demographic of people who actually play the lottery on a normal basis. The people who need the money the most are going to be most likely to play the lottery in hopes of climbing out of their own money pit. However, I feel that a lot of these people are poor for a reason (may that be lack of quality education, untrained or unskilled, or just flat out lazy with no motivations in life). Therefore, when this person receives an amount of money that is unprecedented to them, they have no idea how to handle it because they have either done something like this in the past or they just have no experience with handling any finances. I also think the money disappears so quickly because the recipient feels they have to make up for lost time and acquire all of their dream products. Before they know it, they are left with a Mercedes, sitting in the driveway of a brand new $4 million dollar house thinking that all is well and their troubles are over forever. However, they never stop the spending there as it has become addicting buying exquisite things. Soon, in comes a new boat, swimming pool, and a decked out bar in the basement. They have the “screw it, put in on my tab” mentality engraved into their naïve minds. Meanwhile, the newly-earned money is declining like the stock market in 1929 and soon enough, the winners are left with nothing but the clothes on their backs and are back to scrapping for any penny they can get their hands on. The lack of financial knowledge and awareness of their own actions, combined with the heightened excitement of having tons of money for the first time in their life, seems to be the downfall of these folks. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks and you can’t trust a homeless man with $100 million dollars. They have been programmed to live off of so little that when they actually get the opportunity to spend, they go overboard. Way overboard. At that point, there’s nothing anyone can do as they drown in the deep sea of debt once again.

Sure, to the rest of the world, this type of family formation may seem a bit odd and even creepy, but to these native citizens, it’s a normal socially accepted way of life. Monogamy seems just as out of place to them as this does to us. Through their eyes, it solves a bunch of controversial issues that occur when brothers grow up and each wants their share of the family assets. By staying in the same family, this conflict is avoided completely and each brother gets to continue working and living on the same land they were raised on. Things could get complicated if each brother were to grow up, get married, and start their own families.
Another reason India is dedicated to this polyandry system is because of their high population. In fact, in a few years they are projected to have the highest population of any country in the entire world. This is their version of birth control. By having only one woman shared between a few men, the rate of sexual intercourse will inevitably fall tremendously. This forces me to think of the children who are in fact born and raised within these multi-father families. Children who grow up without a father or father figure certainly have side-effects that other children do not experience. The invisible strings shape them in a way that is unlike those who grew up in a “normal family” with a mother and a father. It would be very interesting to see the effects of a child who grows up with three or four fathers (how they would interact with others or how they engage in relationships with the opposite sex). Most likely, they will follow the footsteps of their fathers and marry a single woman to keep the family land and other assets. The strings control them to think that having a woman all to one’s self is abnormal and nonsense as it will just split up the land owned by the family and contribute to the country’s overpopulation. Also, since the marriages are planned, the men may not even interact with a woman in a one-on-one relationship for their entire lives. The invisible strings certainly would be in action in this type of family structure.

I think the main reason Americans have a relatively lower travel rate to the rest of the world is because we think that we are better than other countries and don’t want to spend our free time in a place that is worse than our home land. We always hear about natural disasters and wars going on in other countries and that makes these places unattractive to outside travelers. For some reason, Americans assume something terrible is much more likely to happen outside our borders without any reasoning. For example, they think every person who travels to Africa will get a terminal disease or every tourist in Germany gets robbed. I personally think that the fact of for once being the minority in a country turns a lot of people off. They feel afraid of being surrounded by others who talk a totally different language and perhaps act in a manner that they are not accustomed to.
I also think that Americans are more grounded is simply because of arrogance. We like to think we live in the greatest country in the world and would find it crazy to travel to a lesser place. It’s like owning a BMW but renting a Camry just for the heck of it. Americans would rather spend their free time in a place like Vegas or Los Angeles than travel halfway around the world to see some random sights. The part of the article that was most interesting was the fact that in other countries it is quite common to take a year off before transitioning from college education to the working world. That is basically unheard of here in America as the job market is so competitive today and no one wants to waste a second. We are obsessed with making money that we sometimes miss things that are happening right in front of us. Graduating from college is a pretty big milestone in one’s life and it makes sense to reward that person with a little break but they are immediately thrust into the work place and pressured to make as much money as possible. They get their mind to think this all the time then and so when a vacation actually is possible, many just choose to spend it at home and wait until the next opportunity to get back into the office.

For most people, blending in as opposed to standing out is a much more comfortable feeling. Being one in a group takes the spotlight off of any one individual and instead looks at the group as a whole. This way, even if the group is doing something that may seem odd, many people are doing the same thing so it makes it seem a bit less weird. The people inside the group who are just going along with the majority will feel comfortable even if what they are doing is out of the ordinary. The first man in the elevator in that video is a prime example of this. As uncomfortable as the people around him were making him feel by turning the opposite direction, he eventually made his way around facing the same way they were to become a part of the group and not look like the “weird guy”. When he first arrived in the elevator, his human instincts told him to face the doors. After the first person walked in and faced the opposite way, the man didn’t think much of it. Then, as the second person arrives and does the same thing as the first, our guy thinks to himself, “What a strange thing to do…” but still doesn’t conform to his surroundings. It gets interesting after the third man walks in in a similar fashion as the previous two. Now our guy is outnumbered three to one and is the lone individual facing a different direction. Slowly but surely, he makes his way around to blend in with the crowd and put his mind at ease. This is just an example on a smaller scale of the way people conform to society’s norms. Take the individual wearing the hat in the video. The other men in the elevator with him all seem to have similar hats, almost identical. Is it a mere coincidence that each and every one of these men prefer this particular hat to any other in the world? Highly unlikely. What is more probable is these men bought their hats after seeing a large number of others wearing the same one and didn’t want to feel left out by not having one. Conformity happens a lot more than we think, we just don’t take the time to step back and realize it.

It’s good to see the Moseley Police Department has nothing better to do than investigate this simple incident “anywhere from weeks to months.” To call the kid a suspect is preposterous. He’s five, and what five year old boy doesn’t love playing with guns; ones loaded with water or darts of course. Poor unnamed child, he’s just part of an unfortunate event. He deserves no blame, but we can’t have this happening again. So, maybe they’ll make an example out of him. Illegal possession of a firearm, carrying a gun on school property, attempted murder even. It seems crazy, but if they do not throw the book at him, show and tell might turn into a shootout.
Seriously, a five year old could never contemplate the thought of taking another human being’s life or the ramifications of taking his stepfather’s handgun. The case should be closed and we should all be thankful nothing serious happened. The stepfather could be blamed for the handgun being so easily accessible, but how’s he supposed to know the child’s motives. He’s not the real father. Maybe the child’s biological father should have taught the boy better, or maybe he purposely brainwashed the child to get that “bastard your mom went off with” grounded. Maybe the boy’s mother should take the child to school or put him on the bus that their damn taxes pay for.
In the end, someone is going to have to be at fault. It will more than likely be the stepfather, who should be innocent as long as he is licensed to carry the weapon that child STOLE. He’s a thief. His fingers are stickier than, well, a five year old’s . If anyone is arrested, it better be that five year old kleptomaniac.
Apparently the stepfather, when questioned, said, “You want to talk about guns like I ain’t got none. What you think I sold them all?” He makes an excellent point. However, the only person that can be blamed for this situation is the stepfather. Having a gun in the back seat with a child is not only dangerous, it’s just flat out stupid. The child had no intentions to harm anyone and this should be an easy case of just sending the father to a gun safety session and becoming a more responsible adult.

I absolutely think that some parents who miss their glory days or opportunities to do something altogether try to relive through their children. The parent will do whatever it takes to make their child be the best of the best in the competition. Most times, the child’s feelings and wants will go overlooked by the parent who doesn’t want their child to fail. The unfortunate part is that the children become accustomed to this lifestyle from such an early age that their mindset is that this is a normal common way to grow up. A two year old doesn’t have the ability to tell what is right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, and will do what they are told to do by the mother or father.
I don’t believe that just because the girl was smiling on stage means that she is truly enjoying herself and is doing what she wants to do. I am sure that the mother trained her to keep a happy face on and act like she was having fun, just like she forced her to wear that outfit on stage. For all we know, the kid could be miserable when her mother makes her do these things just so she can relive a childhood memory of her own.
This is going to have an impact on the rest of this girl’s life. The fact that the mother said she was cheerleading captain just foreshadows the kid’s future indefinitely. There is no way that she will not force her kid to get into cheerleading and follow along her childhood path. I feel that the mother will continue to put her daughter through these pageants even if she wants out, contrary to what she said on the show. I don’t understand how parents can enter their child into a pageant at two years old and expect others to believe that it was the child’s choice. The kid has no idea of 99.9% of things in the world and probably won’t have a good grasp of reality until she is much older and able to escape the control of her mother. Until then, unfortunately, the mother will defend herself by saying she is letting her child do whatever she wishes and is supportive of any choice she makes.

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