This may not be the place to express this, but I will. One of the reasons I am thankful for the age I am (38) is that my generation was the last to be able to experience the full unbridled "innocence" of childhood...trick or treating without fear of being poisoned or maimed, being able to go to the park by oneself (after a certain age, of course), not having to worry about sexual predators, drug pushers, etc., accosting you on your way to school, not having to worry about being shot while in school...
There were the "monsters", of course, and we were warned against them...but it was cautionary rather than the rampant paranoia that goes on nowadays. Much of that "paranoia" is grounded in sad reality, of course. However, it is sad when we realize that we are now in the second generation of raising children in a world that is to be feared; raising children filled with doubt and anxiety about their safety and the uncertainty of the world, children who will never know the simple delights many of my generation were able to experience because of this world we now find ourselves in.
It's more than sad...it's an affront and a travesty. Why are more people not outraged about this? Where did the "ball drop"? Where did we take simple innocence and cast it aside?
Whatever happened to the Divine Grace of childhood?
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Patience, my BUTT...I'm going to KILL something!!!