Chardon OH hopes dreams thoughts prayers

Not surprisingly, our topic of conversation today was about the Chardon High Murders. People saying that TJ Lane was bullied, and talked about his past, when discussing 'why'. 
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My friend John and I were talking about what its like or rather what it WAS like for us in school.  John is adopted. John was heavy. John wore glasses. John had older parents. John had the odds stacked against him.  His parents , well they were old school... I think.  They never 'indulged him' on holidays. He never had a Christmas stocking. He never had an Easter basket he was never even allowed to play with sparklers on the 4th of July.  He cried every morning when he had to go to school.
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I too had issues. Chubby. Red hair. Packed my lunch (didn't buy like the popular girls) and my mom made me smooch her before I got out of the car at school.  6th grade I had pneumonia, then mumps, then my hair fell out. I was transferred at the end of the year from St Dom's to Sheridan. Back in the 6th grade again, I didn't know anyone, I wore a wig, and I had to walk even further from school.  7th grade we moved from the South Side to the West Side. ugh. Better home better neighborhood but a TOTALLY new school, I REALLY knew no one and the girl who befriended me when we moved in , convinced me to drop the wig and just be me. NEW SCHOOL, NO FRIENDS, NO HAIR and MY MOTHER BOUGHT ME 7 IDENTICAL KNIT PANTSUITS AND SADDLE SHOES to wear every single day. The biggest female bully in the school lived on my street and let me tell you, there is NO ONE living or dead that hated school more than I did. If not for my grandma, I would have had no one.
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Which brought us to TJ Lane. Goth, parents in prison. Raised by grandparents. Outcast in school , THEN his girlfriend leaves him for a 'popular boy'. Who, by the way, is now dead.
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Our world is a mess. Our parents walk away from their own flesh and blood to do their own thing.  Our music is violent and harmful. Our TV is CRAZY... making 'good' out of being 16 and pregnant. Out of branding yourself, and disrespecting parents and teachers and the law. Our children's 'role models' are idiots. Our parents thought our ppl were bad. Ozzy and Kiss!!    I was listening to Ron Verb today, and man, just hearing him talk about how he was raised [we are the same age, and have almost identical up bringing] made me actually cry. NEVER did we miss church. We prayed [even in school], we went to Sunday School, we sat with our 'in tact' parents and did homework with them. We played outside with friends that our parents KNEW. We didn't have cell phones to sext our private parts to others. We didn't h ave the internet to look at inappropriate pictures. My parents didn t allow a record in the house til they listened to it. My parents had cable removed when they caught us watching Animal House.  The PARENTS ran the home not the kids. Sure we could sneak a look at dirty pictures in a magazine, but we would never bring it in the home. Oh boy, one time after I started working I bought a Playgirl. One day in a cleaning spree, Rose found the magazine. I was grounded for months. And, they didn't sway their discipline to be our friends.
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I look at my nieces, and the difference between the two lifestyles. 2 were allowed to do what they wanted when they wanted. They could go to school, or not. They could get jobs, or not. They could do absolutely anything because there was no moral compass in the home.
2 were in church every Sunday. 2 had to say 'yes ma'am and no sir', 2 were sat down with their parents every night and studied. 2 oops, 1 of the 2 has gotten one B in her life time, 1 actually got 3 B's. Friends? They knew them all because THEY were chaperone's, they were hosts, they had the kids at THEIR house all the time. They were 'band parents' and 'class parents' and girl scout leaders and with their children all the time.
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Its sad. Children are a gift, a precious gift from God to two people who love each other and , well... why do they forget that? Why? Idk. Maybe Snookie can tell us, since she is yet another unwed mom to be . 
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Lord forgive us.