Homegrown Or Child's Play?

I was going to post this last night, but with the All-Star game and the riveting content of what I wanted to comment on, I just could not pull myself together.

I knew what I was going to write. My wife and I talked about the matter throughout the evening. "You should probably put something in your blog about this Derrick", she said. "It’s awful!", she exclaimed.

We have neighbors who are probably from several nationalities. Many of them are professionals. Many are Indian, some are Arab. They all are very amiable. Several months ago, my wife and I noticed an "Islam" sticker on the back of the minivan of one of our neighbors as he waved when he drove by. I will admit that I still have mixed opinions about the 9/11 debacle. I have reservations about our one-sided policy in the MiddleEast, but that does not make me an Arab apologist. In the same way, I think that we need to be a little more objective with the whole matter. When the Prime Minister of Israel says that he will not sit down and negotiate with Palestine, I would say that our President should give him a primer on diplomacy. But then that would be like asking Kim Jong II to donate his uranium!

When my wife and I returned home the other evening, there were a few very young children out playing. What we saw was astonishing. The kids were playing with toy guns. There were 3 of them within our view. The others were some distance away. The 3 children all appeared to be of Arab descent. One kid told another, "hold him!", as he playfully held a toy gun to the kid’s head and begin shooting, "click! click! click!" "What the hell is that all about?", my wife asked. I remarked, sarcastically, "homegrown", I guess.

Okay. Maybe we are too sensitive since 9/11 and all of the bombings or whatever. Maybe we are too sensitive because the kids were Arab. But what was also troubling is that this one kid was holding the gun to his playmates head!!!! Playing cops and robbers and shooting the bad guy in the leg, the torso is one thing, but grabbing your friend and asking another to hold him while you hold a gun - yes, a toy - to his head, to me is tragically graphic and frightening.

My wife and I wondered how those kids learned to shoot (playfully) someone in the head.

I think I know.