Yet Another Sensless School Shooting

How sad - another student shooting people at school - middle school, no less.  This child wasn't even old enough to fully understand the far-reaching effects his actions will have.  I want to run out and shout, "Wake Up Parents! Wake Up!"  If you don't love your children and teach your children, this is what they become.  I don't care what anyone says, kids who feel loved by their families don't do this sort of thing.  I feel the major thing our kids today are lacking in (other than discipline) is empathy.  Knowing how your actions can make someone else feel.  Haven't we all said something mean to another person and then seen how awful it makes them feel, and in turn, how awful it makes us feel, even if they were deserving?  And the government has stepped in and taken discipline away from the adults - first from the schools and also from the parents.  There is a definite difference between a spanking and a beating.  Beating and abuse is wrong, no matter how you look at it.  But spankings are biblical!  Even God says, "Spare the rod, spoil the child."  Children need to be taught from a very early age that their actions have consequences, and that they should respect adults.  Don't have to like them, but do have to show respect.  I see kids today hit, kick and spit and curse at their parents, and the parents stand there like deer in the headlights doing nothing.  That was never an option at my house as a child, and at my house as a parent.
I also think this thing about everybody being a winner and getting a trophy for whatever activity they are doing is a bunch of nonsense.  Healthy competition is a part of life.  In the real world, you don't always win, or get that promotion or raise.  Sometimes you lose.  Sometimes it's your fault, sometimes not.  No one promised life would be "fair" for everyone.  Some people have it all - some don't have enough.  That's just life.  Kids need to learn at an early age that you don't get everything you want, and sometimes you don't even get what you need.  It isn't always someone else's fault.  Sometimes there is no one to blame.  Sometimes you ARE the only one not invited to a part - but it's OK.  Life goes on.  We have to teach our children to take the good with the bad and not obsess over everything.  Some days, I don't feel like getting out of bed, but I do because, well, you just have to.  Maybe if we taught our kids to count their blessings instead of their gripes, they would feel better.  Maybe if we let them be children they would be better adjusted.  Make mud pies. Hit some rocks with a stick.  Build a fort.  All these "old-fashioned" things taught us to entertain ourselves, to be creative and to just enjoy our time as kids.  Of course things weren't fair sometimes and there was always something we wanted but couldn't have.  That's life. 
I don't even think I knew it was possible to shoot another person when I was 12, and I am sure I didn't know what suicide was.  This child that did the middle school shooting must have been very disturbed.  We never even considered something like that because the teachers would have given us a spanking, and we would have gotten another when we got home.  There were "thugs" in my day, and they were ornery and did some unsavory things, but they still had respect for adults.  They wouldn't have shot the older man who questioned what they were doing - they would have run away and hoped he didn't know who their father was.
It is just sickening what goes on in this world today.  And the news media plays it up big.  I think the publicity opens the door for other disgruntled kids to contemplate that as an option.  So, so sad,