no joking

The world and definitely our society would be better off without the types of people that prey on the innocent good people of this country.. I agree alot with what Joeyquicksand said. Alot of the laws that are a root cause of this problem, are based on liberal ideals.. Ideals like we can't discipline children in schools... we can't have god in our schools, We can't say the pledge of alligiance because it has the word God in it..

The fabric of our society has been shred down to nothing.. basically right now it is up to each individual parent to instill some sense of decency, of right and wrong in our children... but if you do it the old fashioned way.. take them out to the woodshed, well.. they can take your kids from you..

I think alot of gang members are from broken families..or at the very least had no parental guidance worth a spit. But thats alot of our governments fault, creating an atmosphere of you can do what you want without consequence.. The decay of our society, and it's standards is because of organizations like the ACLU..

The problem isn't good dads trying to be a good parent.. The problem is the government sticking it's nose into how we raise our kids, the problem is not being able to call the school party a Christmas party.. it's a holiday festival ! We might offend some kids because they don't celebrate christmas... Too [PoorWordUsage] bad..

I know I went way off subject here.. but I think in order to ever understand why the valley fair thing happened.. you have to look at where it starts from systemically.. Liberalism at it's worst. children need to learn self discipline.. and i can honestly say that is not happening in our schools, because they are no longer allowed to discipline.. hopefully it is happening at home..

The idea you are referring to is nothing new in this forum, it has been brought up many times. And neither is the solution, voting in new politicians instead of the same ones that vote the same way time after time.

You don't know how many people out there have the ideals that have been talked about here and still vote democratic cuz they have for the last 30 years or so. They are not seeing what their party is doing all they know is that is the way the have voted and are not going to change. They don't even know what their party stands for any more. I have relatives like that and quite a few of co workers too. When you ask them who they think is voting this stuff in you get a blank stare and when you say it is the democrats you get a stunned disbelief and even after a bit of a discussion it still doesn't really sink in. As far as they are concerned their must be some sort of a mystery party out there voting this kind of stuff in cuz it can't be the democrats they would never do anything like that.

We have that kind of blind following of a party and then we wonder why things are a mess, people have no idea of who they are voting into office. And then complain when things are going in a different direction than they think it should be going. It has got to the point where many people can't think for themselves any more, sad thing if you ask me. And that goes for same for those that vote republican and then complain about the policies that candidate implements.

We need a moderate party, a party that looks out for the middle class working folk, cuz truth is neither party is looking out for our interests any more. It seems that one party is for those who don't have any thing and the other is for those that have it all, and those of us in the middle are standing there with no one willing to protect our interests. Really sucks!!

Joey, you read one reply to one of your posts and you are ready to label me in one fashion or another? You didn't even get as far as reading the part of my post where I stated just how and why I agree with your stance about standing up to the thugs that terrorize people with violence.

You don't have a clue as to who I am or my political leanings!! Be cautious about jumping to conclusions about people, it tends to make one look foolish!!

Croixflats, I would very much like to take you up on your offer. The fall would be best as I have so many kids/family things going on the rest of the summer.

Also If you ever want to fish MIlle Lacs you have and open invite. I will let you know when the bite really gets going

Great post. It seems that every time an incident like this happens, people are outraged so long as the story remains in the news. Once it is gone, people forget or just plain stop thinking about it.

When these stories come up, I can't help but think of myself and my parents growing up. My dad always said if I did something stupid, I had better hope the cops caught me before he did, and the best part was that he meant it. If I did something in school and a teacher called him, he wouldn't make excuses or blame the system, he would say that it will NEVER happen again, and it truly would NEVER happen again.

I know a lot of people that work in the school system, and they are just amazed at the erosion of society in the last 10-15 years...from the liberal ideals that are prevalent in education...which seems to be the second reason for 90% of todays problems (first is lack of parenting).

I just hope to see the day where respect and morals become important again, rather than rap music and video games...but I'd best not hold my breath.

I totally agree that as parents we are the ones responsible to make sure our kids learn respect and become productive members of society. This is why I sacrifice in other areas of my life to send my daughter to a privite religious school because most public schools IMO are failing terribly at this. My major in collage was education but after my 6 months of student teaching and what I experienced (what happened is for another thread) I have never set foot back in a public school in any teaching capacity.
I may have grown up in a bad situation and could have taken many wrong turns along the way but I am going to do everything in my power to make sure my children never have to go through what I did. If that means personal sacrifice so be it. I think I just might have brought this thread full circle. "How far are we willing to go to protect our children"

Kinda sad ain't it?

Kids only learn what we teach them. If there are no repercussions for poor behavior, poor behavior will become the norm. Kids learn fast, if they can get away with mis behaving and not get disciplined, there is no reason to behave.

This isn't just political, this the attitudes of society. Parents just plop the kid in front of the tv, computer, Wii or whatever and go and do their own thing and not spend any time doing anything with their kids. Raising kids takes time and effort and it seems more and more people are more into themselves and not into their kids. And we are talking about is the result.

Kids learn SO much more than we teach them. Kid's are individuals, they make decisions on their own, and then they grow up. We are talking about kids who are nearing adulthood. Kids who probably pay their family no mind at all. Kids who have been over exposed to negativity in the media, in the schools and on the street. They learn from each other, and all it takes is one to convince three.
Time is moving, therefore we have a society that has changed, language that has changed, and communication that is at its highest level. We can't forget that these acts of violence in their own way have happened since the beginning of the country,sometimes bringing a very horrible outcome; but only increased exponentially due to the aid of more funding since the 1980's. You can not always blame the usual suspects. You must remove the value of the appearance of accepted form of social deviance. If there is no value in something, then people will not buy in to it enough to break laws to make sure it happens. When enough of a populus is doing something that is illegal, and there is enough money behind it, it makes it easier for some to justify a worse form of illegality.


Now if we could only figure out how to make fishing as cool as impressing girls, selling drugs, and fast luxury cars.

Just jumping in here to comment.
When I heard of this senseless assault I wished I could of been there to help this fellow and his family just as I am sure most of you felt the same way. One on one most of us can hold our own and defend ourselves until cooler heads intervene to stop an altercation.

Of course in a situation as VF or on the bus, most will not come across and the odds of us jumping in and helping out are even more unlikely even though we would like to think we would.
I don't live by VF and I don't live where the bus beating occurred but it did not stop me from calling and e-mailing local and state officials to voice my thoughts and concerns as to this vicious attack.
The people who represent us whether or not you voted for them are still our representatives and need to hear from us.
If we have time to blog about this here it would take very little effort to contact them. They are the law makers and the people who are always telling us what a great community we have and what they have done to make it a better and safer place. Challenge them as to what they can do to make it a safer community and hold them to it. Inform them that these predators need to be held accountable for there actions. The undisciplined disobedient behavior of this scourge has no value towards our community and long term incarceration as punishment is the least that should be levied.


Where I live may not be desirable to some but it is where I was raised and I like to say adapting to my ever changing surroundings is little effort on my part. Now this does not mean I can lower my awareness or let my guard down. Opportunists are everywhere and although one has to be aware of ones surroundings you do become somewhat desensitized to the ongoings around yourself.

My well wishes are with the victims. The decisions they made to defend family and selves is honorable.

Sounds great fishorgolf the bite is a lot better in the fall.
Of course we all know that.
I may take you up on the invite on the big lake. Hate to admitt this but I've never fished Mille lacs.
Maybe by then, we can arange others to go out at the same time being the distance of travel.
I hear you on having so many things to do and not much time to do it in.

Sounds like a deal Croixflats.

I have a confession to, I have done very little river fishing in my life and that was mostly for carp and sheepshead down by the power plant when I was young. That is one reason I signed up as and amateur in the PWT tourny out of Hudson this Oct. Maybe I can learn something about river fishing for walleyes.

Gonna have to get you on the river before that so your not fishing blind. We will set something up closer fall gets here.I live a block of the river just south and accross the river from Hudson. I'm not an expert but I think I can give you some ideas and show you the layout of the river.


Did you fish in the bay of the power plan. I rember doing that when I was young to. As youngster not nowing better we go there and cast and snag sheep head along with 100 others there. I still hear those zebco 202's whizzing away.

For carp we would just sit on the bank on the main river and throw out a treble hook with a mess of worms on it and just sit there watching the barges for hours. The river at that time was very polluted and muddy but to us it was still and adventure. The whole Huck Finn deal. For sheepshead we would fish right below were the warm water from black dog lake spilled into the river. I swear there had to be 10,000 fish in a 30 foot area were the warm water spilled out.

Last year I took the boat into the bay where the warm water comes out at night, full moon clear skies, and the shad were so thick in there you feel them bouncing of the hull. The St.Croix has a power plant also, maybe 1 and half up stream from Hudson The river is considerd one of the cleanest big body rivers. Boy, the differant kinds of fish tha congragate there is unbeleiveable. One kind would move in then leave then another would come in. About every species the river has goes through there, from catfish to sturgeon to walley to crappies and of course the sheep head and carp. Though I havent seen pike or musky in there but I'm sure they swing by.