Trouble in our town.

Check this out.

I could've written that email. It's actually pretty much the exact conversation that I had with Dana while I was on vacation and she was reading me the front page of the Advance.

I think it's an awesome idea, but if things will really ever change, we have to bridge the gap.

We have to be willing to say, to someone else "That is NOT okay" when we see terrible things happening. And then we have to do what it takes to stop them, and not just TALK about it.

We have to be willing to tell our kids what will and will not be tolerated, and then to stick to our guns and make sure we do what we can to stop them from doing it.

We have to take our community BACK. We have to do more than light a candle to do that.

We have to stop the kinds of people that did things like attack Mr. Carpenter several years ago, and beat him nearly to death over pocket change. (That same attacker had also shot an ex boyfriend of mine three times, and was given a slap on the wrist. And that wasn't the only person he shot) We have do do something. And we have to do it NOW.

We don't need a Columbine or Jonesboro shooting here to open our eyes. We see it now.
We need to know our neighbors names. We need to know their kids' names. We need to have some old school mentality, when it mattered if "so and so" saw you do something, they would call your mom (and it would mean TROUBLE for you when you got home!) Now, so many blame the teachers, or anyone else they can point a finger at. Well, it isn't the teachers' jobs to RAISE our kids.

I am glad to see a Monticellonian work hard to get something like this together. It's a step in the right direction, we just need to KEEP STEPPING that way.

I hope to see you there. I'd like to meet you :)