Crappy Parent of the Week, Vol. 4 (February 18-24, 2008)
This month's crappy parent hits home for most of my readers as we visit the Bluff City. Memphis police have charged James Hawkins with first-degree murder in the death of his live-in girlfriend Charlene Gaither. Police claim that after murdering Gaither, he decapitated and dismembered her body before dumping it in DeSoto County just south of the Tennessee border in Mississippi.
Now, you may ask, "What makes him a "Crappy Parent of the Week" recipient? This is where the story gets real interesting. According to police affidavits, Hawkins killed Gaither in the presence of the couple's 12 year-old daughter and then forced the girl to help dismember and dump the body.
How in the wide world of sports can we expect the rising generation of Americans to rise above their present conditions when on a daily basis so many of our children are exposed to this kind of grisly, grotesque violence? How can they overcome their struggles when they are dealt this terrible hand? It blows my mind that even somebody as obviously mentally unstable like Hawkins could put his own child in this predicament. And to think that this child will eventually have to return to school and be expected to contribute and learn, and participate along with all the other students. What effect will this have on her? Can she rise above this? What will happen to her?
My Groups
-
Mississippi Teacher Corps Updated: May 9, 2008
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
Comments
Maybe there's some larger cultural argument to make here, but this whole weekly endeavor of yours feels to me a little like trotting out the freakishly deformed creature in formaldehyde and jar.
Yeah, this is grotesque. Yeah, I'm terribly cynical about the state of public education. But there are 300,000,000 people in America. And I can hardly entertain a doubt that such grotesques can be found (though proportionally fewer) fifty or a hundred and three hundred years ago, too.
I think these instances do have something to show us about the sometimes horrific nature of man (or his capacity for horrific depravities, or whatever other formulation is kosher in one's theology), but not very much at all about the peculiar state of modernity or of our culture.