Decay of pretty much everything

Society lies around us in ruins and I can't even begin to offer suggestions on how to resurrect it.

KCMO schools are beyond the point of fixing. How do we get them back without sacrificing the generations that are already middle school or above? It's not just KCMO schools. Lots of school districts around the nation are dealing with the same issues. For too long we have ignored the responsibility of parents, coddled students and overpaid administrators while letting unqualified teachers go unchecked. If the school systems in the US were cars they would be deemed totaled and only worth scrap.

The economy. Buy now and pay later is pretty popular. At least until later shows up. I don't know how we got into this situation. I have conflicting views on lots of it. Many people are losing their homes in the mortgage crisis. Foreclosure is up. Why? Is unemployment up that much too? If you want to keep your house, pay the mortgage. Pay it FIRST. Don't keep cable and internet. Don't drive a huge car that eats gas. We've paid ours instead of buying food. There are food banks and it hurts to go to them, but you know what?? sometimes you have to. (keep in mind that if you use them when you are needy, you should give back to them when you have extra) The utility companies will work with you on payments. Whatever it takes, pay the mortgage first. Being homeless sucks! I understand that not everyone got there because of missing payments. There are some victims, but some are self made. Adjustable rate mortgages. We were offered one. yeah, the payments were great up front, but we read the paperwork. All of the paperwork. Knowing that they could go up and that our income might not caused us to only buy what we could afford then. Our income did go up - right up until the point where my husband was unemployed for 2 years. Yeah, I'm glad we didn't go for the ARM. A lot of the heartache with these is caused be greed and poor planning. Don't buy more than you can afford right now, because you may not be able to keep it later.

Excusing everyone for everything is also a part of the destruction of society. A young man was killed in a convenience store. There is some question on if he pulled the gun or not. This kid went into a store with a gun. He is NOT AN ANGEL. I don't think anyone should be murdered in cold blood (not even kids who are robbing anything - store, trailer, twinkies..) but don't excuse this kid's actions. He didn't go in there to have a friendly talk with the clerk. He didn't go in there to buy something and pay for it with $$ he earned through hard work. He went in there to steal and he may or may not have threatened the clerk. Accept that he put himself in a position to be killed. If the clerk shot him in the back as he was running away, then the clerk needs to be held accountable. Still, if you don't want to get shot...DON'T GO INTO A STORE WITH A GUN. Don't rob people. You never know who you will encounter and you may not win in the situation.

Decay of childhood. Todays kids grow up too fast in many ways. yet, many never grow up in important ways at all. I've met a lot of little girls and boys who acted like the adults they see on tv. I can tell you what kind of programming they are allowed to watch if I spend much time with them. At the same time these hyper violet, hyper sexual kids never grow up. They never learn to get/hold a job or take responsibility for anything. They are forever children, looking for someone to take care of them.

Destruction of our world. I'm so sick of trash. I don't care if you smoke on the benches in front of my store. I do care if you throw your butt down and wait for me to pick it up. I'm also sick of idiots in huge cars/trucks/suvs that take up 1 1/2 lanes on the small city streets. We have one world, and it's a trashy disgusting one. But anyone with eyes knows that.

People like to blame the destruction of society on one thing. It can't be one thing, it's everything. It's you, it's me - it's all of us. Every choice we make. Every product we buy. Every conversation we have.

I don't know why I'm pissy and ranting right now. Just am. Don't have any solutions, just want to complain.