Sad and Annoyed

Sorry, but this is going to be a bit political - so if it bothers you, then skip this post.

First: I'm sad.

I just read an article in our local paper that they arrested a 18 year old in last week's stabbing death of a 19 year old. I saw the title of the article in my RSS feed and decided to look at it just to make sure it wasn't one of my former students - no such luck.

One of the kids, that I will truthfully use the idiom of "a bad seed", was the murderer. I hate to say it, but I knew he was going to do something really bad and end up in jail. As long as I knew him, he had a PO and was constantly being suspended. That isn't to say that I gave up on him. In my class, he was still expected to do the work and I still got on his case to live up to his potential (where I know other teachers had given up on him). I tried to engage him in conversations about graduation, school, life, etc, but he couldn't have cared less about anything.

It makes me sad that we (the school system) couldn't "save" this kid. In this case, he truly did not want help, did not want to change, and he wanted to do these bad things.

Secondly, I'm annoyed.

With the RSS feed, I get access to the comments people can add after the article on line. People we spouting off about how "illegals" are ruining our neighborhoods. Here is my response: HOW IGNORANT AND MORONIC CAN YOU BE????? Most of these kids that are doing these things are home-born and homegrown hoodlums! Some are not, but most are. I worked with these kids - I saw the issues of gangs and I taught most of these little gang-bangers. It makes me sick that people are trying to blame the ills of our society on "illegals." First, I have to say that I'm sick of people judging all hispanics as "illegals." Get a freakin' clue! We are all immigrants here, just some are centuries removed. Yes, I get frustrated that I don't get jobs because I'm not bilingual. Yes I get frustrated that everything needs to be translated into spanish. But, putting all people based on their race into one group makes my blood boil. The kids that I knew to be illegal immigrants or the kids of illegal immigrants embraced education as an opportunity to better themselves and their families, were so respectful, and worked so incredibly hard.

I have to go make dinner, but needed to vent because I am so disgusted with people.