They say it as if it's a virtue.......

What the fuck am I talking about!?!?! My wife was reading the news, as she always does when she has nothing more pressing to do. Even when she does have more pressing things to do, she is on the computer reading the news. Anyway, she asked if I have been following the story about the kid that was lost for four days in Utah, I told her I was aware of the story, but hadn't read it. She made some comments about it, so I had to read it for myself.

"His biggest fear, he told me, was someone would steal him," Jody Hawkins added.

This line is supposed to come off as if we should be proud of this kid for thinking this way. Sure, a child needs to be aware of his surroundings enough to know when it might be advisable to be wary of people they aren't acquainted with, but this goes a bit too far in my opinion. It's the choice of words that get me, the boy fears being stolen. A complaint I've heard about the drawbacks of the Internet is that it encourages people to stay inside alone and interact with others electronically. It's as if we will lose something if this practice becomes commonplace. There is some merit to the notion, but this is exactly the behavior this kid has been brainwashed to emulate. I put it another way in a letter to the editor of our local paper...

In regards to the story of the missing Scout, does anybody else understand what this story reveals about our society? First of all, the story tells of Brennan’s basic needs as being food, water, and ‘playing video games’. Huh?! Since when is this a ‘basic need’? One of the first things the kid does is play games on a volunteer’s phone. Another version of the story reveals that his biggest fear was that someone would “steal him”, and that he’s always been warned never to talk to strangers. This is why the search took as long as it did. He couldn’t be found because he was “avoiding the searchers”. Some people are praising Brennan Hawkin’s actions. It should be noted, however, that this is the very behavior, the notion that we ‘shouldn’t talk to strangers’, that causes people to withdraw from society. Is this what we want? We are supposed to keep to ourselves, yet those that do are criticized as being anti-social when they turn to video games, or use the Internet as a social vehicle.

His father makes another comment I thought was amusing.

"Brennan continues to amaze us," his father, Toby Hawkins, said at a news conference outside their home. "You know, his ability to deal with this initially, I made the comment that I thought that he was the most ill-prepared out of our five children to deal with it, and now I think he was maybe the best prepared."

He WAS the most ill prepared!!! Someone more prepared would have realized these people would probably be searching for them, and made their presence known. The very fact that he avoided the searchers, and had to be coaxed out of hiding, reveals that the boy was not prepared at all for the possibility of being seperated from his peers.