There are things I love about Lakeland – about Polk County – that it’s taken me a while to like. I love our neighborhood. I love the independent stores and restaurants. I love the FLW architecture at FSC, the way the government is working to revitalize downtown.
Then there are moments when I’m reminded why people I go to school with give me that look when I tell them I’m from Lakeland. Why my co-workers drag out their rounds of Polk County jokes when I bring up a story from home. Polk County made national headlines again for the story you’ve probably already heard about the MySpace YouTube Cheerlearder Free-for-all Beating received by a Mulberry High School cheerleader. I watched Matt Lauer interview one of the suspects’ (when there’s video evidence, I have a hard time calling them suspects) mothers and was absolutely disgusted.
Why in the world would these parents refuse to admit that their child screwed up? Megan Jordan got it right:
Our children are becoming desensitized. Their understanding of the difference between right and wrong, or worse, their accountability for the difference between right and wrong, has become skewed. I, for one, want to fight this , but I feel like I’m punching at air.
and
I am asking you, where does it begin? Where does the desensitization begin where our kids start to muddle the line between reality and surreality? Where they go beyond playing Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin in the living room and begin playing Fight Club in their basements?
And then they post it on the Internet. On YouTube. On MySpace. As entertainment.
And the cycle continues.
The worst part of all of this is that the parents of the kids that took part in the beating in Florida will most likely be fighting tooth and nail to bail their kids out of this.
What I wouldn’t give to see one of those parents say, “You have got to be kidding me. You can sit your butt in jail. I’m not fixing this for you.”
The parent I saw on TV this morning is even worse than Charles Lee Thornton‘s mother. When she was interviewed after her son brutally murdered five people, she seemed to think he must have had a justifiable reason for doing it, but you couldn’t be sure she was “with it.” The mother I saw today wanted the blame to be placed anywhere but on her daughter. “‘First of all, the tape that was released is only three minutes long. That was the worst of it,’ she said, contradicting the sheriff. ‘My daughter is the one who turned the video tape over to the sheriff’s department for evidence. My daughter turned it over to them.’”
Judd said the most shocking thing about the attack is how lightly the alleged assailants took their actions. Vieira asked him if they showed any remorse when they were arrested.
“None at all,†he said. “When we had them arrested and in detention, they were laughing and joking, ‘Guess we’re not going to go to the beach on this spring break.’ One girl actually asked our detective, ‘Am I going to be released in time to go to cheerleading practice tomorrow?’ â€
I don’t know a lot about Sheriff Grady Judd’s politics, but I have really appreciated his service to our community. I’ve never seen a Sheriff so proactive and available to his constituents. I feel bad for the guy for having to be in the national spotlight for such an awful reason. I hope the next time Polk County makes it into the National spotlight, it’s for good reasons.
Tags: Local
