Redlake, Minnesota

Originally Posted on Tuesday, March 22, 2005

AllAboutCurley

Well, I've got start this somehow. Ideally, I'd like to start with something more upbeat than what had happened in the American Indian world. Yesterday, a youth of the Red Lake Chippewa Nation in Minnesota had gone to school armed with firearms that he took from his grandfather and shot, not only his grandfather, but his grandmother, a security guard manning the metal detector at the high school that he attends, a teacher, 5 fellow students, and ultimately his own cowardly self. What is wrong with this picture? Why? What had caused this child of ours to do such a terrible act? I know many people will say it's the guns that caused this, some will say it's the music that he listened to, it's the video games that he probably played, and others will say it's his upbringing that made him take the lives of others. Maybe he was just plain crazy. I, in now way, am trying to defend this kid for what he did. Pulling a trigger is the same thing as getting a candy bar from a candy machine, it takes thought and action. Why the dark wind blew through him must be understood though.
I remember back when I was a kid, my parents had never questioned my music or anything like that. They did, however, questioned my friends and who I was hanging out with, my where abouts, my activities, and how my day went. Every day. If I got in a fight at school, I'd tell them. If I got my ass kicked, they would ask me why. If I got a bad grade, I caught hell. If I got good marks, I was praised. I cannot lie though, in my high school years, I did a lot of stupid things that I'm not proud of, but I knew exactly what was right and wrong. I knew the consequences of my actions. I had parents to keep me in line. Every time.
This kid was angry for a reason and he took it out on lives he had taken. I'm going to tell you exactly what my thoughts are about this. He was never afraid of anything.........the electric chair.........prison.......the police......the principal........tribal elders.........his grandparents.......his parents.......God........Satan. Nothing. Without hesitation, after it all, he took his own life. Maybe I was wrong, he may have been afraid of prison. I'm not sure what he was afraid of. But he had the strength of pulling 2lbs of pressure 10 times to exact some kind of vengance against people at the school he attended. Why wasn't he afraid? Because nobody kicked his ass to keep in line. Didn't you feel fright when you know you did something wrong? Y'know when your dad finds out what you did? That feeling? He probably did a hundred things wrong and nobody was there to correct him. Nobody. Nobody, NOBODY was there for him when he wondered what was right or what was wrong. It takes love to be there for somebody. He didn't have it. Please, love your kids.............. and SHOW your love to your kids and everybody around you.. LOVE makes the world go around. Think about it. Please think about it, I might be wrong.