Yesterday, I wrote about Preventing Horror. A bit more today...
It turns out that two of my sons, who attend high school, were told yesterday of a student who stated that he wanted to "beat the record" of the Virginia Tech murderer. The sophomore was removed from school yesterday.
Question: will the student return?
The student probably will return. Perhaps as soon as today.
Question: does the student have a right to return?
No. In my view, the student just opted out of the school year for a comment like that. And if the student has a history with either mental health professionals or if the student has made other threats to harm himself or others before, then the student has opted out of every other school year. At the least, that kid just punched in his card for home-schooling or became a dropout. More suitably, he should go to jail. He should become his parents' and the court's problem - not the school's and not mine.
You don't make a statement like that and get a free pass; otherwise people will make careless, thoughtless comments all the time and get away with it and no one will know who's making the real threat and who isn't until it's too late. Threats are not constitutionally-protected free speech. Words have meaning.
My sons' lives, and the lives of others, aren't worth the risk.
I'll be having a conversation with the school today. Us parents weren't notified of this at all. I first heard it on the news and then talked with my sons, who know the student by name.
Hopefully, we won't ever see this local punk turn the nightly news into his own personal YouTube like the Virginia Tech murderer. Gee, I wonder when the t-shirts with that wackjob's poses will be screen-printed. Celebrating him like that - is that constitutionally-protected free speech too? The media is only stoking the fire of other wannabe nutcases by giving that guy's pictures any airtime at all.
"Beat the record..." - that's really disturbing, as though this is now a freakshow competition for kamikaze losers.
ETC: I spoke with the principal. The conversation went something like this.
"I heard about the threats yesterday. I get automated phone calls from you folks if my kid is two minutes late to class. Why didn't I get a phone call about this threat?"
"We sent out an announcement via our listserve. Are you on it?"
"Perhaps not. So is this kid in school today?"
"Mr. Rogers, we spent 11 hours yesterday trying to confirm the threat, and no one substantiated it. We talked to many, many kids yesterday, but no one can say that they heard the threat."
"I'm not surprised. Why would they paint that 'X' on their chest? Why volunteer to be the first one shot?"
"I would hope that someone would have that integrity."
"In this case, integrity can cost you your life."
"Well, we can't just go off of rumors. What if this were your son?"
"Keep him home. It becomes my problem."
"But these were unsubstantiated rumors."
"If this kid has a history of psychiatric problems or has made threats against himself or others in the past, then I think it gets more weight."
"So if a kid is on depression medication, we should kick them out?"
"This is not just mental illness. It's mental illness with death threats. There's a difference."
"These are unsubstantiated rumors."
"I'm not comfortable with this kid coming back next week. How do you know he's safe? Especially since my sons also heard that he said this friends would do the job if he wasn't in school."
"We heard that too. We brought in those students and their parents as well. We found no substantiation for any of this."
"So this kid can just come back in? If so, I'm not comfortable with that at all. At the very least, the kid should kept out until you've had proper psychiatric evaulation."
"We're doing that. I can promise you that."
"So you'll keep this kid out of school until you know absolutely that he's not a threat?"
"Once he's had proper evaluation from a professional, be it his own therapist or some other professional, he'll be allowed back into the school."
"I'm still not comfortable. My kids' lives are in your hands. You're asking me to trust you."
"Yes, I know that."
It's really tough being a parent some days. I'm sure it's tough being a principal some days. She seemed surprised when I said that no student would step forward to put their life on the line like that. I'm not sure that she had considered that. I hope she does now.
I got home last night and watched NBC news and saw the freakshow that was Cho displayed before me.
The only thing I find more dangerous than Cho are those who see Cho, and people like him, as a victim. "What problems did he have as a youth?" This was a question stated by NBC's guy. I ask: who cares? He's no victim. To even suggest that he is a victim completely disregards his utterly senseless murder of so many people.
"Why did he do it?"
Wrong question. That only makes us stare at the guy and give him more undeserved attention.
The right question: how do we prevent this from happening in the future? We don't do that by studying Cho himself. We do that by studying why we as a society missed the early warning signs.
There are a lot of really, really bad people in the world who simply can't be reformed. When people show explicit signs of hating society and start talking of killing people, the risk is not worth it. It's time to pull them out of society until they can play nice in the sandbox with everyone else.
Yes, that's a violation of their civil liberties. But they're not being civil, so they have, in effect, opted out. Free speech doesn't include the right to threaten to kill others. When 63 out of 70 people don't show up for class because of this guy and nothing was done to boot him out permanently, that's a failure of leadership.
So, enough about what's his name. Let's focus on where we failed.
One of my favorite practice sessions with art is the raw sketch. No eraser. No rough drafts. Just drawing, or inking, or, in this case, painting.
I found some guy on the Net, printed him out, and went into our fireplace room to sketch it out while Tamara watched Law and Order next to me. It's the first time in about 4 months that I've touched the brushes. And it felt ~~goooood~~. Spent about 20 minutes. I just wanted two colors. Limiting myself like that forces me to reduce it to tones and shadows.
Good practice.
So I'm working on getting myself back in painting shape for some things I want to do. More art lately, and it's great to be back at it.
And second, I'm playing around with different things... so here's some of my painting, words, and cartooning thrown together in what I'll call blended art.
I've spent some time drawing lately - cartooning - and building up my chops for that, and I'll post more about that later. But it's fun to play and experiment.
I'm tired of racism. I'm tired of the color of a person's skin having any impact on anything at all. It doesn't matter. Really... it doesn't matter at all.
I'm tired of words one person can use but another can't. If it's offensive for racial reasons, then it shouldn't be used at all. There is no justification for its use. Words are not owned by anybody.
Anybody recognize this?
"In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence."
"Dignity and discipline..." Do you agree with that? I think that's a great standard.
"Ho" is a detestable word. It denegrates a person. Why use it at all?
Be the change you want to see in the world. Lead by example.
I'm tired of grafitti just because a person can do it. Put down the paint can, whether it's in your hand or in your mouth.
I'm tired of people making objects of others and viewing them as discardable.
I'm tired of what is senseless.
I'm sick of hate.
If you didn't recognize the author of the words above, you might recognize the closing paragraph of his speech.
"When we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
"'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"
It was a great speech. It was given almost 50 years ago. It could still be given today.
I'm tired of racism, whether it's black racism or white racism. It's ugly, unnecessary, and wrong.
We ought to treat each other like we want to be treated, regardless of what color we are. That's the standard. Anything less deserves an apology and a better effort next time. Anything less is juvenile and hurtful.
88 professors at Duke and Al Sharpton owe an apology to three innocent men. Don Imus and his producer owe an apology to the Rutgers women, and Imus has. Comedians who use race as fodder for "comedy" aren't as funny as they might think.
Color doesn't matter. We're people. That's all that matters. We should behave accordingly.
This is the best elevator description of Wikinomics I've read yet, from someone who'd never heard of a Wiki.
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
God, that's both beautiful and true. Allowing others to self-organize around an effort/idea is the most natural, most sustainable mechanism for any mission we wish to undertake. It will also tell us whether the effort is marketable and worthwhile.
What if you play the best music there is, and nobody listens? What does it mean?
You've heard of Disney's employees referring to themselves as "cast" before, right? They are performers... and conduct themselves as such. And Tom Peters says that this is not a mere "office" where we work, but "theater." It is our stage...
The virtuoso musician played at DC's metro station and got only $32.16 for 43 minutes of playtime... it really is all about presentation. And presentation is about preparation, looking the part, and venue. I could be the world's greatest genius, but if I'm not looking the part in the right setting with the right audience who is prepared to hear and see me perform, it's all irrelevant, and it gives my life no significance. I have no impact like I otherwise might. Think about strengths...
I'm able to do what I'm doing now here at my job because my new boss stopped to listen to my performance while I was working in my project manager role. But if he hadn't, I would have no contribution as I do today. Not in the way that I can, anyway.
So, I can do everything that I can to legitimize myself and look the part, but it's also about audience selection and audience preparation. I have to ready them to hear me play. I have to get their attention and then get them warmed up and ready to receive me, so to speak.
Axiom: Presentation =
personal preparation
personal appearance
reputation
content
audience selection
audience preparation
venue
= reception of my gifts
And my value goes upward as I massage each aspect. The virtuoso is worth $1,000 per minute in one circumstance and $32.16 for 43 minutes in another.
How do you set your stage for receiving what you're worth?
ETC: I mentioned this story to a friend of mine in the hallway here at work and he said that his nephew went to France and took out his trombone while vacationing and played on the street and did quite well. Better than $32 in an hour.
Could Joshua Bell have done better with different selections?
What does our audience want to hear vs. what do we want to play?
