A medical journal notes that “Studies of adults who were sexually or physically abused as children demonstrate significantly higher rates of emotional problems (72-100%)” than they do as children, leaving many to conclude that childhood abuse may present problems more in later life than in childhood. In short, the adult madness that the crack addict is displaying has exploded more in adulthood than in childhood
Like this family, too many of today’s children and their care givers are caught up in a maelstrom of malicious events over which neither they have control. Farm children see their parents, grandparents and relatives hauled off their farms in chains. The children of crime suspects are given over to over-burdened Child Welfare Authorities, and are often abused more in the foster home than the “abusive” home from which they were taken. Little old ladies die of heart attacks when drug agents kick in the wrong apartment door—theirs. Children huddle against one another in classrooms, as another out of control child with an assault rifle mows down their fellow students and teaches. And, dangerously estranged boyfriends and husbands gun women down in their workplaces or right on the courthouse lawn.
We can run, but we cannot hide. The 24-hour news cycle won’t let us. Usually, there is enough madness in the US to keep the channels spewing fear and madness, but if the crazies in America go on vacation, there’s always the war to fall back on.
The old saying is still true. Violence begets violence. And madness, too. So, if your neurotic, alcoholic, crack head or meth freak relative is getting on your nerves, just turn on the television, or head to the computer and wallow in somebody else’s misery. It’s all there. And, best of all: it belongs to somebody else.
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