Familicide, A Public Health Crisis Facing America?

Leave it to good over-reacting Americans to consider a rash of murder-suicides involving families in Maryland and elsewhere as a "public health problem" that MUST be addressed. This is wrong.

Let's look at the underlying issues that may have caused these problems and address those instead. While they aren't sure the motivation of the Parente familicide, they do know that the father a lawyer may have been involved with a ponzi-scheme. Investigators claim that economic strife may be the catalyst that drove Mr. Parente over the edge. Police in Middleton found a family of five dead last week and similar crimes were reported earlier this year in California and North Carolina.

Financial worries a catalyst?? A majority of Americans have been living above there means for years now. Don't have money to pay for this, use the credit card. Don't have money to pay for that, get a loan. We're a spend, spend, spend nation and now that the money has begun to dry up we are all looking at each other bewildered and blaming others for the issues instead of looking inward.

As with Bernie Madoff, some people's drive to have money, and as much as possible, drove high profile financial "robber-barrons" to mastermind schemes to take as much money from other people and use it for their own profit and gain. As stated above some think that this might be the catalyst behind the Parente familicide.

Where am I going with this? I know, I went on a tangent. Instead of overreacting and spending millions of dollars that we don't have on a campaign to combat familicide let's look at the underlying issues to solve this problem. Let's go back to some of the rules our parents and grandparents utilized. We are so fixated on progress in this country we sometimes are reluctant to admit that people may have had it "right" generations ago. Don't spend more than you make. Honesty and Integrity has to be of the utmost importance. Don't over extend yourself on credit cards. Perhaps if we teach that type of financial responsibility and personal integrity and responsibility and insist on strict adherence we will see this "rash" of familicdies go away forever. Let's not be rash and overreact.