成人X站

SEATTLE'S MORNING NEWS

America has a lost generation of men who can’t deal with emotions

Oct 3, 2017, 7:33 AM | Updated: Oct 1, 2024, 10:30 am

lost generation...

Reed Broschart, center, hugs his girlfriend Aria James on the Las Vegas Strip in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a concert Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Las Vegas. The couple, both of Ventura, Calif., attended the concert. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

We won鈥檛 know the whole story behind the tragic Las Vegas shooting for days. But as we consider yet another tragedy, I can鈥檛 help but look at them from the perspective of a mother. From that perspective, I鈥檓 trying to find ways to stop my daughter 鈥 and your children 鈥 from growing up in fear of each other.

About a year ago, when my daughter was 3, a little boy her age walked up to her at gymnastics class with his finger and thumb forming a gun. I watched in stunned motionlessness from the parent viewing area — the kind where you can see in through the window but the kids can’t see out. It happened in slow motion: the boy walked up to my daughter with his finger gun, put his pointer finger to my daughter’s head and pulled his thumb trigger. I felt dizzy.

I looked over to his dad because the immediate next move as a parent should be intervention to explain why we don’t pretend to shoot our friends in the head, but the dad’s face was in a phone.

My daughter may not have understood at the time what the boy was doing with his hand, but she understood that she in some way was being threatened. She understood that fear and came to me for comfort. All I could tell her is that what the boy did was wrong and that it was up to his parents to tell him what’s right. I question that approach to parenting. Maybe I should have intervened myself and suffered the consequences of his parent disagreeing.

I should have stood up for my daughter. The boy continued to exhibit aggressive behavior during gymnastics class and nobody was stepping in to help him through what he was feeling.

I’m trying to atone for that parenting failure right here. I’m calling on all parents to start raising your children first with innocence and most importantly with the capacity to filter their emotions in any other way — literally any other way — than aggression or violence. I’m advocating for parents to see their boys as whole humans and stop stunting their emotional capacity by saying “boys will be boys.”

We’ve been raising them wrong for generations and because of that, we have a lost generation of men.

As we add music festivals to the growing list of places we cannot feel safe — theaters, schools, churches, malls — there is a clear pattern of men with an inability to work through complicated emotions. They turn to violence instead of dealing with them. It’s a lost generation. Not strictly of Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers, etc. It’s decades鈥 worth of men who were raised in a way that is damaging to a society evolving beyond them.

RELATED: Deadliest mass shooting in modern US history

As a mother, I often see the raising of young boys, even today, with the inability to deal with emotions. It鈥檚 always “be tough,” “man up,” “don鈥檛 cry,” and what you get on the other end are adults who have no tools in their toolbox to filter strong emotions.

I told this to my 成人X站 Radio colleague Tom Tangney. He argues that the “be tough” approach to raising boys was more of his father’s generation, and perhaps a bit of his own — he’s near the same age as the recent shooter in Las Vegas. But not today, he says, society has moved on from that mentality. I disagree.

I鈥檓 not saying this is the case for every mass shooter, but I do think that it is indicative of somebody who resorts to violence; it is likely somebody who has been raised without an outlet for strong emotions. What do you do? You take it out on others.

During the recession, we saw fathers killing their entire families before of themselves because they couldn鈥檛 deal with the failure of losing their job. The news reports are always there: a in a movie theater over texting; a man who opened fire on parked in front of his house; a man who shot a younger man for being at a bus stop. And yes, you can find reports of , too. But finding a square egg in a case of round eggs does not mean there is no pattern.

What are we seeing in a lot of these domestic terrorists? The ages vary, but they are all men. We have lost generations of men who are turning to violence and doing nothing about it is like shrugging at the Vegas shooter and saying “boys will be boys.”

FILE - This file photo taken Feb. 17, 2011 shows protestors of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's bill t...

Associated Press

Things to know about legislator walkouts as Texas Democrats flee state over a high-stakes map vote

Texas Democrats are fleeing the state Sunday in an effort to hinder Republicans from approving a new U.S. House map that could boost their slim congressional majority in 2026. The walkout lets the minority party keep Republicans in charge from having enough votes for maps that would add five new Republican-leaning congressional districts. The proposed […]

3 hours ago

A map of U.S Congressional Districts proposed Plan is seen a Texas legislators' public hearing on c...

Associated Press

Texas Democrats leave the state to block vote on redrawn House map backed by Trump

Texas Democrats are leaving the state in an attempt to prevent the state House from holding a vote Monday on new congressional maps that Republicans hope will net them several additional U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterm elections. The dramatic move Sunday could expose Democrats to fines and other penalties 鈥 with the state’s […]

3 hours ago

FILE - The Boeing logo is displayed at the company's factory, Sept. 24, 2024, in Renton, Wash. (AP ...

Associated Press

Boeing workers who build fighter jets plan to go on strike

NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Boeing workers who build fighter jets are planning to go on strike Monday at midnight. About 3,200 workers at Boeing facilities in St. Louis; St. Charles, Missouri; and Mascoutah, Illinois, voted to reject a modified four-year labor agreement with Boeing, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said Sunday. […]

3 hours ago

Charlamagne tha God appears on FOX News Channel's "My View with Lara Trump," on Thursday, July 31, ...

Associated Press

Trump attacks Charlamagne Tha God after radio host criticizes his presidency

WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 President Donald Trump on Sunday lashed out at radio host Charlamagne Tha God, saying in a social media post that the popular broadcaster “knows nothing about me or what I have done.鈥 Trump鈥檚 comments came a day after Charlamagne, whose real name is Lenard McKelvey, criticized Trump on a Fox News show […]

4 hours ago

FILE - Soulja Boy arrives at the BET Awards on Sunday, June 25, 2023, at the Microsoft Theater in L...

Associated Press

Soulja Boy arrested on suspicion of weapons charge during a traffic stop

LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥 Soulja Boy was arrested early Sunday following a traffic stop on suspicion of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Soulja Boy, 35, whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way, was a passenger during a traffic stop at 2:35 a.m., police said, and was arrested. Way was booked into […]

4 hours ago

This shooting scene at 1st Ave. S. & S. Dakota was the first of two homicides in Seattle SODO Distr...

Tom Brock

Two deadly shootings, two hours apart, in Seattle’s SODO District

Seattle Police detectives are investigating two murders in Seattle's Sodo district that apparently happened within a couple of hours of each other early Sunday morning.

4 hours ago

America has a lost generation of men who can’t deal with emotions