Recently, some man up in Aurora, Colorado went out of his mind and killed 12 people while maiming and wounding 58 others at the premiere of the movie the Dark Knight. Now everyone knows that the Super considers herself a superhero but that doesn’t mean I intend to jump off any high buildings. In contrast, James Holmes allegedly woke up one morning convinced that he was a villain and took machine gun and disguise in hand and went out to prove to the world that evil does exist. Who is to blame? Some say he was an adult and responsible for his actions while others insist that his parents raised a monster and set him loose to kill and destroy. Who’s right? When people die the answer really doesn’t matter. I say this while wondering about the children I have yet to produce and while thinking about the world that they’ll inherit.

For the kids that exist now and for the parents that are guiding them into adulthood, I question how responsible we are as a society for the actions of our offspring? Where does nature (inherent, genetic predisposition) begin and where does nurture (environmental factors and personal experience) end?  If you’re a parent and you raise a child into adulthood with all the necessary moral characteristics to succeed and later that child discards it all and turns to massacre and mayhem, as a parent, are you to blame? Do ordinary households breed and create presidents and world leaders as well as killers and convicts? As a boy did Holmes run around setting cats on fire while his parents did nothing to see to his psychiatric health? The alternative is that he is what he seems which is an articulate and well-educated man who harbored the killing gene inside.

Nature vs. Nurture: as a society we accept praise and adulation for the superior achievements of our children when they are scholars and Olympians doing good. When adult children do unspeakable acts of violence, should the reverse be the same?

In no way am I supporting child abuse but having rode the NYC subway I know for a fact that there are some bad ass kids in need of a beating…ah…I mean spanking.  I don’t mean anything excessive just a few love taps to communicate the importance of not putting your ass in grandma’s face, not blasting your music when God and Sony made headphones for a reason and not telling your friends and the entire world how well you can f*ck when you just got your period and your first pubic hair last week. The Super is old enough (won’t say how old) that I come from a generation where Time Out wasn’t invented, and if you disrespected or in any way disobeyed your parents, there was a strong possibility that your parents might put you in a headlock followed by a suplex. On more than one occasion when I was young my mother snatched me up so hard that I found my feet dangling five inches off the floor.  What’s up mama! Was it something I said?

Let me apologize right now to my mother for revealing her, “it’s my way or the highway” or “I put you on this earth and I will take you out” parenting style to the entire web. I only bring this up now because all over the news is the scandal that mega church Pastor Creflo Dollar might end up in Sing Sing because he hit (choked) his child. I don’t know the story behind it and I don’t need the press release, but the incident inspired a question in me.  Apparently the teenager defied her parents and as a result her father went ape shit…I mean… got angry and gave the child a beatdown she won’t soon forget.  Some folks applauded his actions while the other half condemned him for being a bully. To my readers, riddle me this, in a time when kids have gone wild and parents have lost control of their kids, is it right or wrong for parents to make their parental point by balling their fingers into fists?

As a parent, is it acceptable to climb into the ring to beat-box your toddler or teenage baby until they tap the mat in surrender and give?