Can you be Saved?

"Something's Wrong in the World Today". And the singer may not know what it is. But I'm thinking that I do.

I was perusing the news stories this morning. I prefer the silence of my computer to the yammering and simpering of the folks on the TV, especially in the morning, before my first cup of coffee is finished. People who know me, know not to talk to me before coffee. My BP is so low in the mornings (about 90 over 60) that communication is a baaaad thing. When I traveled, there always had to be a coffee maker in the room; I would not go out in public, not even to a 'free breakfast', without coffee. So every morning I sit with my cup in front of my computer to find out what happened overnight and see what's going on in the world.

A man in Vermont raped and killed his niece, and convinced another girl that her death was because of a 'termination' organization that would kill little girls for not having sex with him or otherwise misbehaving. A 'mother' killed her foster kids and put them in a freezer. Caylee's Mom is 'now' a suspect. The millionaire adventurer's plane was found in California (weren't they searching in Utah? Whoa. Someone needs Mapquest badly). An Omaha woman, a teacher and a mother of a 9 year old girl, was found guilty of taking a 13 year old boy to Mexico to have sex ("He seemed like a man to me" - granted the kids here are more mature than their citified peers, but WHUT?).

WTF is going on? Well, it seems pretty simple to me. People simply don't feel the need to practice self-control any more. We have become a 'me first' society, where our own immediate desires aren't even thought about, simply acted upon. SOMEone will bail us out, SOMEone will save us. Even the politicians are promising things to 'save' us, from each other, from terrorists, from bad investments, from our children, our parents, our neighbors. There's no need to take responsibility for ourselves any more - there are legions of volunteer, non-profit, and state and federal organizations to save everyone. So no one protects their children from rapists or molesters - someone else will save them. No one takes responsibility for the jobs they undertake, so even foster children, put into the system to 'save' them, are molested or die. Kids are like Doritos, any more - "Go ahead and crunch them - we'll make more". Teachers entrusted with the health and welfare of their students in their care decide that they can be used to satisfy some sick controlling need for sex. The very people whom busy parents trust to 'save' their children in foster care or in the school are the ones corrupting and killing them.

No. One. Can. Save. You. You come into this world alone, and you will go out the same way. No matter how many friends you have, none of them will save you - they are all too busy trying to save themselves. Terrorists? There is no salvation from a crazy person. Child molesters and killers? No one can save your children from them - all you can do is BE THERE to protect them from their uncles or their teachers or the weirdo up the street. But you have to take responsibility, you have to take charge of your own life and your children's lives.

Our daughter is the kindest person, the most giving person, I have ever met. She'll help someone in a heartbeat. Even though she took karate for six years, and will not hesitate to use it to defend herself, she is still soft-hearted and loving. Looking back at some of her boyfriends over the years, I am well aware that sometimes the only thing that kept her from being an abused girlfriend was her ice-cold father's comment to every one of them - "This is my baby. You hurt her, I kill you." He meant it. They believed it. They should have. Now, her dad is a kind and gentle man, normally - but he took and still takes responsibility for his daughter, and makes no bones about it.

No, that song is wrong. There's not "something wrong with our eyes" - there's something wrong with our minds and hearts, that we permit child molesters, abusers, all of the selfish and self-seeking predators among us, to live and perpetrate themselves on others, over and over again. There is something wrong with masses of people expecting "other people" to take their responsibilities off of their backs, out of their hands, and to save them. The choice to abuse drugs, to let drink or drugs control us, to misspend money or time, or to harm ourselves or others is still a choice, and not only indefensible but inexcusable, and should be met with swift and direct consequences. There is something wrong with expecting any politician, government, bureaucracy, or teacher to do what we refuse to do for ourselves or our children. And that's what's wrong, what's missing - our accepting our responsibilities to protect and defend ourselves and our children. There can be no excuse for rescinding our responsibilities to others for our own safety, our own welfare, our own lives, our own children, our own stupid mistakes or selfish actions. We are "livin on the edge" - but it is an edge of our own making, of our own whining refusal to accept the responsibility of our lives and the choices we make, to fob off our lives on someone else, anyone else.