And the boy shut his bible and fluttered his eyelashes, saying, "These here are the end times."

I don't know if everyone's heard yet, but the worst school shooting in US history happened today at Virginia Tech. As of right now, 29 people died and 28 people are injured.

I wonder how long it's going to take for us to realize that we doing today's children a real disservice and causing their unhealthy development. Personally, I refuse to believe these school shootings are isolated incidents, particularly given the momentum they're gaining. What about the Red Lake High School Massacre? Or The Dawson School shooting across the border in Canada? Either Columbine is having a really delayed domino effect, or something weird is going on.

What I would REALLY like to see is this sort of thing addressed by a presidential candidate for 2008, or even what el jefe Bush has to say. I think it's really important, the topic of children. And not just about this incident, but in general, addressing the mental and emotional health of middle and high school students.[I immediately thought of how college students are the more narcissistic now than ever, so maybe we should include young adults in the discussion too]

And I don't want to sound preachy, but I think the first thing that Americans, particularly parents, should be doing is thinking about the ways their raising their children. I feel as if so many people are so self-righteous, so determined to think they know what's best for a child. Really, though?

I also feel like bringing in Cultural Evolution stuff, but I won't.

Anyway, it just caught my attention and I wanted to say something. I do think, for whatever reason, kids today are...more unstable than their/our predecessors. I think a more religious argument, or at least one with more Premillennialist leanings, might say it's a sign of the inability of the government to behave morally. But there are so many ways in which living today is different from living thirty or even twenty years ago-- the mass media becoming even more massive, and the subsequent exposure to violence and sex, how school as an institution has changed in the past years, the state of the economy and the slight shifts in class structure, what we think about health and nutrition. It makes me wish I knew more about child development because there are so many variables involved.

Man.