My jaw dropped to the floor. I don’t know if something is lost in translation. I still hear on social media and comments that the state of Texas and the police there is to be blamed. And that the shooter is really the victim for not getting adequate mental health intervention.
As I think more about it, when should the help really come? Shouldn’t it actually go to the parents even before the child is born? Most parents will admit that children don’t come with an instruction manual.
Maybe they should and they should get it before the child is born just like expectant mothers get medical and dietary counsel. In earlier days, it was community and family.
With nuclear families, they are often isolated from community and in countries like America with a large immigrant population but often blended, there is no access or support from ‘people just like us’.
I say this as an immigrant because I have a lot of friends from diff cultural backgrounds, but when it comes to food or lifestyle or entertainment, I reach out to those from my own background because I feel like I can relate more with them..to be able to speak in my own language and eat the same food and have the same faith etc.
While first generation families still maintain ties, with the second generation, the children look different but feel like they are American. In public schools where child rearing is seemingly outsourced to, they seem to be doing an awful job. And no surprise..because they are not equipped to deal with this level of diversity and those who can’t conform are alienated.
So it has to be parents who raise children and not state run schools. But how do we go about this? This school shootings phenomenon seems to be uniquely American and this is how I am trying to rationalize it.
So we have to come up with an American solution to an American problem. It has to start before birth and it has to be towards parents so they understand the unique challenges of raising children in America as Americans. We can’t import what some other country is doing wrt education or parenting.
I would appreciate any respectful thoughts and discussions that introduce solutions to this problem.
My first recommendation is to go to thttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_th... and make an excel file with the data of each incident, and try to make clear if the attacker was an immigrant "0", the son of an immigrant "1", the grand son of an immigrant "2", ... It's a strange metric, because if only one of your grandparents is an immigrant, do you get the same number in that field that if all your grandparents are immigrants.
My family is very weird, so some of my ancestor arrived recently and some a very long time ago. Try to imagine what would you write in that field for you and your friends.
Most immigrant are nice people. Some not.
Most people with long history of family there are nice people. Some not.
Most people with complicated ancestors structure are nice people. Some not.
In my opinion you are putting too much weight in the last case, and trying to fix it one detail that is not a common pattern and will not be useful to prevent next case.
They frankly substitute for extended families (really grandmothers) that once lived in the same household or very close-by, as well as more communicative experiences with one's neighbors. As you say, in the past this came from community and family.
I'm not sure how any of this has to do with school shootings or diversity. The killer may have had late-teen onset schizotypal disorder. While he broadcast warning signs, it's IMHO reasonable to wonder if his mother (who seems to have had her own issues) or grandfather (a convicted felon) would view going to the authorities as a first step. It's not unusual for those who have been involved with the criminal justice system to not exactly bond with law enforcement (or .gov of many types) afterwards.