Dave Sarafolean

Wanted to share some additional thoughts about the tragedy at Hazelwood East High School, where a child's head was beaten into concrete during a fight. Many are wondering what produced the rage inside the other child. Why did the fight escalate to such a barbaric level? Victimhood produces rage and animus. It's a cancer of the mind. Modern American culture preaches and rewards the victimhood mentality. It's a lucrative and effective tool to seize power. It's antithetical to Christ's life and tenets of Christian faith. Choosing Christ is choosing victory. We can achieve all things through Christ who strengthens us. We no longer teach that as a society. We teach victimhood and grievance. Our young people are more callous and savage than previous generations because we've convinced them they're all victims of sexism, racism, homophobia, Islamaphobia, fat-shaming, transphobia, poverty, pronoun injustice, you-name-it, etc. They're all owed a debt. Unpaid debts foment anger. I've been poor. Me and my father shared a 400-square foot, one-bedroom apartment in the 'hood in 1984-85. While captain of my high school football team, I slept on a couch and ate a lot of canned tuna and fast food. I was never angry. In fact, I was happy. I didn't dwell much on our situation. I wasn't a victim. I had two parents who cared about me (my parents were divorced and my mother moved to Kansas City with her factory job) and I had a belief that things would get better. God was on my side. Poverty does not produce rage. A victim mentality, a lack of hope, the belief that the world owes you a debt, and the absence of parental love produce an endless supply of rage. The causes of what is ailing our children are obvious. It's the absence of a heavenly Father and an earthly Father. Those two fathers are the cure for the cancer of victimhood. It's really that simple. We should not be surprised by the savagery we're seeing from young people, whether it be school shootings or schoolyard fights. We've poisoned the minds of children. We feed them a steady diet of video game violence, movie and TV violence, rap violence. Our schools tell them the suffering and sacrifice of our ancestors did not produce a better world. No. The errors of the past are unforgivable and the life sacrifices to atone for those errors are woefully insufficient. Retribution (vengeance) and reparations (debt) are the only adequate solutions. The solutions are antithetical to Christianity. They lead to rage and destruction. They lead to little girls beating each other into comas and insane adults shrugging it all off as an inevitable consequence of kids fighting. Victimhood is a mental disease.