What I really learned in high school
I know a guy named Adam. He is a friend of mine thatI will never understand. He spent almost half of first year in
Juvenile Detention Center. Adam stole a police car and ran
into other cars plus a few buildings. Less than three hours
later, Adam passed out in the back-seat while Officer
Gauthier escorted him to the police station. He is a Juvenile
Delinquent. I wonder why people end up the way they are. If
someone hurts others, it is because others hurt them. For
some, a life of crime is all they know.
I will never excuse anyone for crimes they did
simply because they are trouble. Look beyond the action into
the past. Adam's step dad could not work. He had a kidney
problem mostly attributed to cocaine. He stayed at home
fighting with Adam's mother and peeing through a tube. His
mother was so fucked up one day that she grabbed a sixteen-
inch hunting knife. She sat and stared at it for a
few moments. Then she plunged it straight into her
abdomen to her spine. Somehow or another, she lived. Now the
unhappy couple pees through tubes together. Two years ago,
Adam moved in with a closed friend, Danny. His mother spoiled
the kids. They always had money for food, clothes, drugs, and
cigarettes.
Penny Dosch was a well off mother of three. She married
a middle class oil rig worker who provided her
with all she needed. The caring lady drove me home when I
walked in the freezing snow. She loved her nephew, Adam, dearly;
often inviting him over on the weekends for a beer
or two.
Penny and a friend drove to Malta for a road trip.
She called and told Gina, her oldest daughter, how much she
loved her. Then she took another swig of codeine to wash the
pills down. Penny died in Malta of a self-inflicted drug
overdose.
On October 31, 1998, Danny played with a gun. He aimed
carefully at his own head with trembling fingers and
pulled the trigger. He died instantly. All his troubles are
passed on to us. He found his way out, when will we?
Now where is Adam? He is alone and frightened. Some
day Adam will be in a state penitentiary. Probably not for
rape, because he is good looking. However, for murder, robbery,
and drugs most likely. Before he goes, he will
probably leave behind a few kids to grow up in the ruins of
survival. By the young age of fifteen, I can assure you they
will have a criminal record longer than your list of
scholarships. Who is to blame? Punishment will fall on the
child. Do we blame Adam for leading these children into a
life of crime? On the other hand, do we blame his parents?
It is a cycle. No one can chose where they are born.
All people are not created equal. Adam did notreceive the
chances that I have. I got out of the cycle. Why am I the
lucky one? It is as if I owe it to all those people to become
successful. Does that make me better than anyone?
I learned in high school that all humans are not equal.
We start out at different levels. It is so unfair
that children who go through hell can never climb out of the
ruins, while those who provided with greatness stay there.
Thoreau was wrong when he said, "For every weakness there is
an equal greatness."
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