Beaten Teen & Dr. King: Mom Talk

While much of the country was getting ready to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, a group of hoodlums jumped a 17-year-old boy in a Chicago. They called him the N-word and Asian slurs. Someone recorded Sunday's 3-minute attack, then posted it on YouTube.

This is bullying to the extreme. I can't help but ask myself "where are the parents in all this?"

First of all, we don't know yet how old these thugs are. Still, that doesn't seem to sway my opinion if they are 16 or legally adults.

Where did they learn that it was OK to call people racial slurs? Where did they learn it was OK to hit defenseless people in the face with shoes, knees and chunks of ice?

Maybe the parents didn't outright teach these things to their sons. Yet, they aren't off the hook, either. We have a responsibility to teach our children, among other things, basic decency.

Sure, there comes a point when we are no longer culpable for our children. Still, if your teens do this, moms, you blew it.

Society is getting more and more violent. Perpetrators are younger and younger. Unlike ever before, we have to pay close attention so our kids don't become assailants or victims.

As I've written before, TV and are a huge contributor to social violence. If you have in your house, you are fooling yourself.

Children aren't born hating. They are very loving, trusting little beings. Violence is learned.

Dr. King's legacy for peace has had tremendous impact in our society and around the world. Then again, in some ways, we haven't come very far at all.