Violent Young Men
Aug. 11th, 2004 09:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsOn the way home yesterday, while I sat on the bus and read my Bujold, two young men, early twentys, Causcasian or perhaps Hispanic, got onto the bus. They were big men, muscles rippling under tight and torn t-shirts, their bodies where exposed showing crude tattoos of the sort that one endures in prison. They came in the classic twosome of noisy leader and quiet follower.
"Yeow, look at that. Damn, if I had my knife, I'd rip her open like a pig. Take her some where and stick her good." The other grunted assent. "Fuck, man, they let some girl loose like that on the streets, she's gonna have to fuckin' deal with me." I turned my head to examine the subject of their attention. She was attractive in a thin way, dark hair in a perm, mid-20s. Fortunately for her, she was not on the bus and a wall of plasticene windows isolated their voices. "She's ain't got big titties, and, you know, all my last four girls had nice titties." He craned his head. "She's got nice feet though. Damn nice feet."
"You ain't gonna fuck her feet," the other said.
"Naw, but I like good feet. She'd need bigger titties. Damn!" this last said in that voice of appreciation. They got off two stops later.
Amazing, I thought, a wired little punk with a foot fetish. On the other hand, that opening salvo of violence about knives and girls put me on edge for the rest of the bus ride home, even though they had long left the bus.
Now, for four years I was the senior (and only) webmaster at The National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. I know that stranger danger is overblown and the "Amber Alert" level nightmares make up less than one percent of all missing children alerts; most of them are more mundane, like non-custodial parents taking the kids and runaways.
On the other hand, there are animals like those two who wafted past me, unpleasant little odors in a usually ordinary life. And some of them are more than talk. "Stranger danger" may be statistically unmoved over the past fifty years, but that doesn't make it irrelevant. And having worked at missingkids.org, the first and most basic idea is that if you do talk about your kids on-line, don't use their real names. Give them the anonymity they deserve.
Which leads me to this point: I don't use my kids' real names in print. It's simple as that. They know that if someone uses the on-line names I've given them without clarification, without knowing their real names, that's not someone to trust. I discuss a lot of personal details here, and this LJ can be read by two billion people. Think about that: if you shook hands with one person every second for the next year without pausing to bathe, eat, sleep, pee, or wipe your nose you could meet about 1.5% of the people who can read these words.
I have no intention of making my kids easy targets. So here's the deal: don't use my kids' real names in my LJ. Or your LJ, if you give a damn. I avoid as much as possible using any minor's real name in print; adults, I assume, can take care of themselves. I can delete the offenders from here-- and I have, without prejudice for the content. They deserve a little anonymity.
"Yeow, look at that. Damn, if I had my knife, I'd rip her open like a pig. Take her some where and stick her good." The other grunted assent. "Fuck, man, they let some girl loose like that on the streets, she's gonna have to fuckin' deal with me." I turned my head to examine the subject of their attention. She was attractive in a thin way, dark hair in a perm, mid-20s. Fortunately for her, she was not on the bus and a wall of plasticene windows isolated their voices. "She's ain't got big titties, and, you know, all my last four girls had nice titties." He craned his head. "She's got nice feet though. Damn nice feet."
"You ain't gonna fuck her feet," the other said.
"Naw, but I like good feet. She'd need bigger titties. Damn!" this last said in that voice of appreciation. They got off two stops later.
Amazing, I thought, a wired little punk with a foot fetish. On the other hand, that opening salvo of violence about knives and girls put me on edge for the rest of the bus ride home, even though they had long left the bus.
Now, for four years I was the senior (and only) webmaster at The National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. I know that stranger danger is overblown and the "Amber Alert" level nightmares make up less than one percent of all missing children alerts; most of them are more mundane, like non-custodial parents taking the kids and runaways.
On the other hand, there are animals like those two who wafted past me, unpleasant little odors in a usually ordinary life. And some of them are more than talk. "Stranger danger" may be statistically unmoved over the past fifty years, but that doesn't make it irrelevant. And having worked at missingkids.org, the first and most basic idea is that if you do talk about your kids on-line, don't use their real names. Give them the anonymity they deserve.
Which leads me to this point: I don't use my kids' real names in print. It's simple as that. They know that if someone uses the on-line names I've given them without clarification, without knowing their real names, that's not someone to trust. I discuss a lot of personal details here, and this LJ can be read by two billion people. Think about that: if you shook hands with one person every second for the next year without pausing to bathe, eat, sleep, pee, or wipe your nose you could meet about 1.5% of the people who can read these words.
I have no intention of making my kids easy targets. So here's the deal: don't use my kids' real names in my LJ. Or your LJ, if you give a damn. I avoid as much as possible using any minor's real name in print; adults, I assume, can take care of themselves. I can delete the offenders from here-- and I have, without prejudice for the content. They deserve a little anonymity.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-08-11 09:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-11 02:07 pm (UTC)But far better they never meet anyone.
As for your kids, I think you have a good answer.
Excuse me while I go sharpen my claws.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-11 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-11 09:08 pm (UTC)