I read today in the Courier Mail that parents are somehow surprised at this and have expresses sentiments which in some ways contribute significantly to these problems. For instance:
Mother Natalie Smoothy, whose son attends the Catholic college, verbalised what was written on every parent's face as they gathered for a memorial service at the school on Tuesday.
"What's the world coming to is what I want to know," she said.
"How did this happen in a little, quiet, beautiful part of the world?
Elliott, 12, died yesterday after being stabbed in the toilet block of St Patrick's College, at Shorncliffe.
Reports of disgusting behavior by some people on forums like Facebook are reprehensible, but go to show just what really lurks under the surface of many nicely varnished exteriors.
I grew up in a small beautiful part of the world too, it was in the middle of the east coast of Australia (but when I got there now, I think it has been destroyed). I went to a Catholic School there and I can say that there were certainly plenty of times I feared what the older boys might do to me when I was in grade 6.
It certainly was a more quite and more beautiful part of the world back in 1975 than it is now, there were no violent video games, no news reports of horror in quite the same detail and yet people found it in their hearts to be viscous and abusive.
I can't say if its getting any worse, because I saw some things which I thought were dreadful back then too, but I firmly believe that it is in the complacency, the willful indulgence to create a fantasy of the world being a beautiful place that people then provide the environment to foster this sort of thing.
I believe that we should be able to find balance, to see the beauty that is there as well as the horror, but not by pretending the horrid is not present.
Australians seem to have a long history of pretending the horrid isn't there, and being "aghast" when it appears. I can only assume it is because the vast majority put their heads in the sand and deliberately refuse to see the horrid around them all the time. Only when it is thrust in their faces and they are pulled screaming from their comfort do they recognise it. Then suddenly it becomes "what has happend to the world"
What happened was that you saw it as it really is.
How can the mother of this child not have heard of Daniel Morecombe? People will say I am being tough here, but really, pull your head out of the sand my friend.
Folks, by doing that sort of thing you silently consent to it. You provide the environment for it to grow in.
I recall many of us at my school complaining about one of the Christian Brothers in our school fiddling with the boys on camps ... but ohh no ... we wouldn't know what we were talking about. We were just boys.
Funny how decades later the same fellow is prosecuted for just this. The messages of children are often ignored.
This does not mean that I believe that children should be treated as adults, and it does not mean that I support fully or agree with the existing situation where children are essentially used to dob in their parents if they are disciplined.
History has shown that lynch mobs gathering and menacing the streets to find a guilty person to bring to justice do nothing to solve the problem, the answer does not lie in a short sharp reaction. I firmly believe that the answer lays in vigilence awareness and action. Perhaps if you listened to the sermons in Mass sometimes you might actually hear that same message being spoken there too.
So if you feel that the streets are not safe at night, perhaps its because by sitting home on the couch in front of the telly every night, complaining about how the TV is crap, you leave the streets vacant and empty. I've lived in Japan and Finland and I can assure you that the streets are much safer in neighborhoods in both places because people are out walking around on them.
If there is a vacuum, something fills it.
So, to quote an old saying: Wake up Australia
Stop pretending we don't have problems, stop pretending and start looking and taking actions. Participate, take responsiblity and most importantly learn how to engage in dispassionate dialog with your fellow Australians to make the place better!
... or it will just fall into being worse.
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