Sad state of affairs, the future is bleak

UPDATE TO THIS STORY!
Brian Holloway is now pressing charges. I have NO sympathy for the children who did this, and I applaud him for the effort he made in trying to HELP them.  But apparently those kids don't NEED his help, so he is WELL within his rights to press charges.

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Just when I think I can't get any more discouraged about the generation being raised today, something comes along to lower my expectations even more. It makes me wonder what kind of job I'm doing as a parent. I'm so disgusted right now after reading Facebook, I can't even put my thoughts together. This post may not be the high quality Pulitzer-prize-winning blog post you've come to expect from me, but that's because I'm writing it between dry heaves in the damn bathroom. Let me 'splain.

My friend Marguerite just posted a link to a story that I hadn't heard before. Now that I've read it, I want to vomit. An ex-NFL player, Brian Holloway owns a house in Stephentown, NY and another, which is his primary residence, in Florida. Over Labor Day weekend, when Holloway was at his home in Florida, his son contacted him to let him know that he had seen some disturbing activity on Twitter, apparently there was a break-in at Holloway's Stephentown home, and kids were tweeting that there was a huge party there. 300 kids showed up. 300 kids did over $20,000 worth of damage to this man's home. 

Take that in for a moment: 300 kids broke into this man's home and did $20,000 in damage. Piss on carpets, broken windows, garbage strewn all over, spray paint all over the walls, a statue was stolen, but eventually returned (thank God SOMEONE had a conscience). Some of the tweets about this party were sickening. How about this one: "So glad my parents don't give a fuck what I do" or maybe this one: "yeah mom, I went to a party and got drunk but hey at least I'm not a meth addict".

Seriously? Do you think your mom is happy about that? What kind of children are these parents raising?? Oh my God I'm just speechless. But wait, there's more. Sit down, this is going to come as a bit of a shock:

Brian Holloway may actually be getting sued by the parents of the 300 kids who trashed his house. SUED. Why? Because he had the audacity to try to HELP these kids. How dare he?? Rather than to go straight to the police and seek to press charges, he did something amazing. He created a website, and tried to reach out to these kids to try to HELP them before they do something tragic. He's buried several friends who passed away too soon from drugs and alcohol, so he set up a website, attempting to identify the 300 kids, and invited them to come to his property for a picnic he planned to host for veterans, asking them to help clean up and try to make some amends.  He's identified at least 100 of the 300 kids, and on his website, HelpMeSave300, has pictures and tweets that were posted on Twitter by these kids. Read that again. These kids posted their pictures and tweeted about the party on Twitter for the whole world to see. Yet, these parents are looking to sue him for posting these pictures and names on his website. How utterly disgusting is that? Is it me? Am I out of line here?  And do you know how many of these kids and their parents showed up to the picnic? 4. FOUR. 4 of the 300 students came to his house and helped. MIND = BLOWN.

What does this say about the PARENTS?? That these parents would rather SUE this man, who is the VICTIM here, for putting their kids on his website, than to have their children step up and take responsibility for their actions. I'm utterly aghast and I don't think I've ever actually been aghast before. And let me tell you, it's not a good feeling.

Look, if it was my kid who was involved, I'd want to know about it. If it was my kid who was stupid enough to tweet about it and post pictures of themselves trashing a stranger's house, I'd damn sure want to know about it, and I'd DAMN sure hold my child accountable for her actions. My child may be too old for me to beat her ass, but don't think I wouldn't try if she did something as incredibly horrific and stupid as this.

Accountability. Responsibility. Conscience. What the hell happened to those three things?

I applaud Brian Holloway, he's a better person than I will ever hope to be. I'd be looking for restitution and justice. He's just looking to help these kids turn around and be productive. That is something that their PARENTS should be doing, but apparently, that's just not the case.