[plug] What do you school-age members think of SlashDot's HellMouth articles?

[Leon Brooks]

Tamara Thompson wrote:
> 
> I'm not school age of course...
> 
> Wow.  Those are powerful comments from the kids.  Brings out
> an empathy.  It is so true that there is no venue for their
> voice here in the land of the free.  hmmm.

There is now. But what chance of seeing any of this in mainstream press?

> I remember Jr High and High School as horrible social
> environments, not very academically oriented.  It was as
> though the school was a place to be socialized, or
> ostricized, and not a place of education.

Indeed it is. "Sociali[sz]ation" is now considered to be an important
function of schools. And they do it very, very badly.

> <whew>  I had no idea so many kids still felt like that.

What about the ones who never saw the articles, or didn't respond?

> They are right about the insanity of blaiming the Colorado
> incident on games or guns or clothing.

As much as blaming bushfires on the existence of matches. Were there no
guns, bombs would have been used - or knives, or homemade clubs,
morningstars, crossbows (a car's leaf springs make a dandy crossbow
without any expensive or complicated tools), whatever is available.

You can buy a few innocuous ingredients in supermarket or two which when
mixed will level a city block. I found out about these things long
before the Internet existed by reading (*ghasp*) a book. If you want to
find out, you will. You can, for example, make a bomb for about $10-$15,
which when set off correctly in a room will level every house within
about 60 meters. Different innocuous ingredients and a bag of nails will
sweep a huge airport lounge clean of vertebrate life for about $30.
Thanks, but no thanks: I prefer to see guns being used, because bullets
you can duck, gunmen you can run away from.

> It's just a symptom of a very ill society when the young begin self-destructing.

Not "just," but yes, a symptom. What's really sad is that the
government/official reaction to the insights in the SlashDot articles
and feedback is almost guaranteed to be diametrically opposed to the
solutions laid out by them.

-- 
The answer, I think, lies in explosives. It's been said that there
is no problem that cannot be solved by a suitable application of
high explosives.  Now if I can only figure out how to send them via 
e-mail ...			-- Vince Sabio, HumourNet Moderator