The Walking Dead

 Yesterday goes down in history as an all time low for social media. I saw one of the saddest, most disturbing images I have ever seen in my life online (and I've seen some pretty gruesome shit). In the photo, there was a group of boys in what appears to be a hall or gangway. They can't be older than maybe 12-15 years old. At the front of the group, one of the boys has another boy performing oral sex on him, another boy is right next to him preparing to pull his penis out as well. Then it becomes clear. The boy on his knees is to repeat this act on at least 4-5 other boys 'waiting their turn'. All this being captured by the one girl present who took the 'selfie' smiling with this going on in the background. As horrific as this already is, it gets worse.

If you look closely at the boy who the act is being performed on you realize... There is a gun in his hand and he has it pointed at the head of the boy on his knees. The boy on his knees is being forced to perform felatio on this group of boys with the threat of being shot in the head if he doesn't comply with whatever they request of him. You painstakingly realize that you are now privy to and witness of the sexual assault of a minor by minors. Many of you saw it as well. It was removed and reported ( as it should have been) but that doesn't solve the bigger issue. 

I've been around children who operate this way, children who only know pain, abuse, and neglect. It is a harsh reality but some kids (not all) are too far gone to help and they are out here damaging other people at light speed. When images like this go viral, it validates all the terrible things 'they' say and insinuate about 'us' being savage animals. What is even scarier is that I have to worry about what type of interactions my child will have with these apathetic empty beings out here. This shit rips at my soul.

I spoke to a nurse from the University of Chicago who works in the neonatal and pediatrics unit. She had been there many years and told me something very sad and interesting. She said that the crack era of the 80's affected more than people realized. She said that you couldn't always see what was wrong with a baby because so many looked and appeared normal in spite of the mother or father's drug use. She went on to tell me how when those babies had babies ( many young) there was something very eerie that many of the nurses noticed. What they noticed was not with the parents (children of addicts), but the grandchildren ( this current generation after millennials) of former crack cocaine users. 

She said they all noticed that from a very young age many of those children were apathetic. Emotionally, many of them were cold. She spoke of a lack of empathy that was chillingly unnatural and a certain emptiness in their eyes (as if there is nothing there). There may or may not be research to support this but I believe this woman and the other nurses who have seen and birthed multiple children from the same communities and same family lines through generations, witnessing this first hand. I am not saying that this applies to all children of those particular circumstances, but I too have noticed certain disturbing patterns with this most recent generation. A general numbness. Unfortunately, there have always been children who were taught miscreant behaviors and have in turn inflicted them upon others, but with the rise of social media, never before has it been brought to the forefront in such a wickedly prideful manner. It is both sad and disgusting to think of what those boys in the picture were doing as they smiled for the camera as well. If that doesn't signify a disconnect I don't know what does.

So as I write this, with tears burning down the sides of my face in anger, I too, like many of you, feel helpless. I think of the dysfunction of the girl who happily took the photo as if nothing was wrong with what was going on. As if this was normal children's behavior. I think about what was done to the aggressors by some pervert fuck that made them want to assert their 'dominance' over a peer in that manner. I think of the mental, physical, and emotional issues the boy who was assaulted will now deal with. The shame and anger, the embarrassment, guilt, and helplessness (or what he might have to deal with from family or community members if now labeled 'gay' as a result of the sexual assault). I wonder, will he now become one of them doing this to someone else or will he be ostracized and regularly abused. I think of the young boys in Parkway Gardens, not far from where I live, who run trains on other young boys because they've been taught this prison culture behavior and I can't take it. 

There are so many of our youth who from day one were neglected, told they were nothing; treated like they were nothing, given nothing, so LIFE means nothing. They respect nothing, care for nothing, and feel nothing inside. The zombie apocalypse is now and the children who are killing and doing these heinous things are our walking dead. 

Sigh....