Why can't people be charged with a crime for this?

Okay, dusting off the soapbox again. I've found something else to rant about. Be prepared.

How is this acceptable? Not the assault, but the fact that people recorded the incident on their phones but did NOTHING to stop it, to call the cops, or in any way do something to help the victim. All they were interested in was getting it uploaded to social media. (Beware watching the video. It's brutal.)

I wasn't really aware of this other than in passing until Himself actually pulled up an article on it. Apparently the attacker is now in jail in Salem under a $35,000 full cash bond. I can't find the article he was looking at that talks about this. She ended up turning herself in.

Himself made the comment of “I don't want to live on the planet anymore”. Honestly, I can't disagree with him on that point. What the hell are people thinking, watching a young woman get beaten – to death for all they know at the start – and all they do is pull out their camera phones and start recording? How is that even allowable in our society?

Where did the compassion go? I can understand not wanting to get involved in the fight, but surely there were a few strong young men there who could have helped pull her off. Maybe someone could have called the cops instead of leaving the woman to find her own way to get help. What about the danger the woman's two year old was in. I'm so sick to my stomach about this that I don't even know what to say.

I think what happened to the victim was horrendous. I think what the onlookers did was despicable. I can honestly say I wouldn't have gone in to rescue the woman. I'm not that strong and I'm a little afraid of physical violence. But I would have called 911. I wouldn't have stood there with my phone out recording the whole thing. Why do young people – and probably some not so young people – this this is right?

Something else I found in one of the articles I read made the comment that the Salem police were contemplating criminal charges against the onlookers but the subject was dropped by the prosecutors. Why? Aren't they as guilty of a crime as the woman's attacker? I think they'd be accused of being accessories to it because they did nothing to help.

I'm not being very coherent here other than saying “why is this a thing” and “why is this happening”, so I'm going to step off the soapbox now. But seriously, this just pissed me off and made me lose all faith in humanity.

No really. WHY IS SOMETHING LIKE THIS CONSIDERED OKAY?

Childhood

I was on FB yesterday when I saw one of the trending news things. (I hate that trending thing but will occasionally go read something that catches my attention.) I knew that he'd been taken off life support so I was both glad and sad to see that Casey Kasem was dead.

There's a lot about his music and radio career on there but the biggest thing I remember him for is Shaggy in Scooby Doo. I grew up on Scooby Doo, both reruns and the series that came about because of the original series. I had a few reservations about Scrappy Doo, but I still loved the cartoon series.

I loved Scooby Doo. I loved how mysteries could be solved so quickly, and that in most of the series, it was just a person in a costume. It taught me that behind all the evil things there was a person with a reason, even if that reason made no sense or was intended to hurt someone.

Cartoons taught me so many things when I was growing up. How to stand up for myself. How to be honest. How to love. How to be creative. I wasn't allowed to watch too many of them as my TV time was limited, but I picked my favorites and religiously watched them, even if it meant getting up at 6:30 in the morning. Sometimes, when I got up that early, I'd sneak in an extra show or two before my mother got up.

Saturday morning cartoons are a thing of the past now. The networks have taken them off the air for the most part to make way for other programming. So children now don't have the opportunities many of us did when we were growing up. I used to wonder what made them take them off the air. I have a feeling it has to do with the way parenting has changed since I was a child.

I can remember riding in the back of our station wagon, curled up in a nest with my younger sister. When I rode in the back seat, I didn't have to wear a seatbelt. When I was allowed to go outside to play, I didn't have to be back in until my mom called or until it started getting dark, whichever came first. I could ride my bike without a helmet. Strangers weren't regarded in the same way as they are now.

When did society change? What made it change? When did we go from an easy going society to a hyper paranoid one? Children these days aren't allowed to play, to fall down and get hurt, to just be kids. They're taught from the time they're small that they have to be miniature adults. A friend of mine put her son into preschool. She was horrified that her son wasn't given much of a chance to play. He was given worksheets that he had to fill out, books he had to read, homework he had to do. In preschool. She looked around for a new one but couldn't afford the ones that would give him what she wanted. So she pulled him out and turned him loose to play and learn on his own.

We are hurting children by not letting them do art, play at both home and school, discover new things on their own. So many parents regulate everything their children do to the point that children don't learn to think for themselves. Our schools are only reinforcing this by having children learn things to pass tests. It's feared that as adults, they're not going to know how to deal with life. It's going to cause a lot of problems for them.

When did childhood stop being about the children? What do you think about the way things are going now?

Gadgets and why we can live without them

Gadgets. I love gadgets. I have an iPhone after all. I wouldn't have one if I hadn't gotten it for free in a sale from my carrier, but that's neither here nor there. I love my phone.

I love my laptop too. It's four years old I think. It still runs well, after a brief issue with having to replace the hard drive a couple years ago. It runs the programs I need. It's taken to Ubuntu like a champion, and I love the Linux based operating system. I can't play many games but I don't care. I can still write, play online, and chat with friends. It's faster at loading than Windows ever was.

I don't mind Himself's computer either. It's a PC he built from the ground up. It's not as spiffy as he'd like, but he's got the chance as time goes on to upgrade it until it gets where he wants. It's going to take some time. But it'll get there.

Now, the reason I bring up my love of gadgets? I want more. I used to have the basic Kindle. We sold it for gas money when we were really hard up a little over a year ago. I want one again. Only this time I want Kindle Fire. Or I want another tablet that I can run the Kindle app on.

I want a new laptop. I said I loved mine and I do. But it's four years old. There are laptops out there faster and spiffier than mine. I want one. I'd have to take Windows 8 until I made the decision if I was going to put Ubuntu on it or keep Windows on it but I still want one.

A PC. I'd love to have PC as well as my laptop. Then I could have Ubuntu on my laptop and Windows on my PC. I could play my games on my PC and work on my laptop. I could play Sims 3 again. I'd have a computer beasty enough to play it on.

Why am I talking about my wish list here? Because I want to make a point. Yes, I do want all these gadgets. But you know what? I'm happy with what I have. None of it is the latest and the greatest. They've all got problems of their own. But I don't feel the need to go out and buy whatever shiny hits the market. I don't need them. They're not a priority in my life.

Now I'll be honest. Part of that is because I can't afford it. I've come to realize though that even if I could afford it I wouldn't do it. I'm content to keep the things I have now, and only replace them when it becomes necessary.

Our society is so focused on instant gratification that we fail to realize we need to stop and look at what we have. If something is slower than what's on the market, not as fancy, not as new, we have to get it. We focus so much on the material that we forget that we can be happy with what we have.

I'm learning to be happy with what I have. I'm learning to get rid of the same mindset I accuse general society of having. It's hard. Some days I want more. But others I just accept that what I have is what I'm going to keep and that in the end all of it is just stuff. Stuff can be sold, traded, or given away.

No, I'm not getting rid of my laptop or my phone any time soon. I do place a value on them. But my Kindle, the thing I couldn't live without? Gone. Many of the books I thought I would read over and over again but never did? Stacked up in a pile to be donated to Goodwill. Clothes I always said I'd diet down to? Also going to Goodwill.

We need to declutter and destress our lives. Take a minute. Focus on breathing rather than desiring what's out there. Sit down with what you do have. Find reasons to be happy with it. And then keep those in mind as you see commercials for the newest things. As you listen to your friends talk about their new toys. Or when you see something go through your Twitter or Facebook feeds. Close your eyes and remember that you're happy with what you have. When you come to believe it yourself, you'll have taken a huge step in freeing your mind.