Just down the road a bit

Just down the road a bit, a few neighborhoods away, a young man of 18 beat his adopted mother and father to death on Friday. No one knows why -- he's been arrested and will be tried as an adult. In another state and another town, another young man killed his parents, as well. And in another state, a man killed several people in a shooting associated with a robbery. In a way, I can understand the motivation of this last killer better than I can understand young men killing their parents.

This first young man's Dad was an associate principal for a school I actually attended many years ago. I can imagine the ride there, the layout of the building. I saw their house on the news -- it looks to be in a neighborhood like mine, in a house that my family could be living in. What causes this? I see it as evil -- where does this evil that contaminated this young one come from?

This is not the first time that something like this has had me befuzzled. Early in my teaching career, I had a student kill his next door neighbor, stabbing her dozens of times. He was caught as he returned to the scene to retrieve a part of his own finger that he had cut off. Where does this evil come from?

Today I think of all of these young people and their families.

Note: This is posting 1350. Interesting. I didn't think that I had that much to say. =o)