Families, communities, and nations are stronger when parents are active counselors in the lives of their children and teenagers. We will never know how many lives can be influenced for good by parents who are active in teaching, counseling, and protecting their children.
Americans have watched for three
weeks the trial of a teenager – Kyle Rittenhouse. Someone should have been
counseling the seventeen-year-old young man to stay home on that fateful night.
From all accounts, he could be described as a good and compassionate teenager who
went about helping other people. In fact, he got in trouble because he wanted
to help people on that fateful night in August 2020 when he made the decision
to get involved in protecting his community from rioters. If he could go back
and make the decision again, he could decide that bad would override any good
that he could accomplish.
Rittenhouse was acquitted on all
five charges and was declared not guilty. This is the verdict that should have
come because he was defending himself – a constitutional right. This decision
does not make the determination that his actions were good. It only states that
he acted in self-defense when other people were trying to kill him. He will
live the rest of his life and all eternity with the knowledge that he killed
two men. The jury was right to acquit him. They kept him out of prison, but
they cannot give him a normal life. His life will never be the same as it was
before that fateful night. Even though acquitted, he will pay a terrible price
for his actions.
For one thing, Rittenhouse will have
difficulty being accepted into any university or getting a job. Whether we like
it or not, he will be judged differently by universities and employers. He and
his family might move to a different area because their lives will not be safe
in their hometown. With a name like Rittenhouse, they will have difficulty
disguising themselves. Therefore, gossip and trouble will follow them forever.
I wish them luck and peace.
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