How did we get a Jihad Johnny?

How did we get a Jihad Johnny?

January 31, 2002

Straight Talk
By Muriel Sluyter

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

As we know, the American who fought with the Taliban against America is now in America. His parents say their son would never hurt a fly. He was a sweet, shy boy who loves America and would never fight against it.

It sounds great, but in a broadcast interview, he said he knew of the attack on the World Trade Center, and approved of it. When he was captured, he had an automatic rifle, and it wasn’t window dressing. Automatic rifles are used to kill people. Our agent, Mike Spann, was killed by someone’s rifle immediately after he questioned John Walker.

So, how did we get a John Walker? For one thing, there always have been bad apples, but the lifestyle his parents gave him was the perfect incubator for bad apple tendencies. Does that mean he had no choice? Not on your life! He had every choice, no matter what his parents did to him. And that was?

He was an only child, with neither sibling support nor guidance, and no matter what modern social engineers say, that is a handicap. His parents moved him from the East to Marin County, Calif., a place as lacking in traditional structure and support as any place in the country.

His parents divorced, further demolishing his sense of security. His mother became a Buddhist, negating the structure of his Catholic upbringing. All these things happened at the most fragile time of his life.

When he dropped out of school, he was allowed to go on a spiritual quest of his own, without guidance from someone, anyone, to whom he was of value and who had even a little bit of wisdom.

Was he destined to become Jihad Johnny? Absolutely not, but no one did anything constructive to keep him from doing so. They turned him loose and told him to do his thing. Too bad his "thing" was so awful, so destructive, so final.

While on his quest, he connected with people who gave him guidance and structure, and since he had been deprived of both by those who owed it to him as his birthright, he eagerly, pathetically accepted it from the scum of the earth. He was not the first abandoned child to do so, and most assuredly, he won’t be the last.

Why do such kids end up so depraved? Because their parents are so bone-deep selfish that nothing matters except their wants. When a child’s needs compete with a selfish parent’s wants, there is no contest. The parents’ wants win hands down. Unfortunately, many moderns are taught that such behavior is acceptable, when in fact, it is guaranteed to destroy children.

These children know their needs are of minimal importance to their parents. They learn that, on a numerical scale, their needs rate a one, or even a zero, while their parents’ wants rate a 10, and since their parents are their world, their evaluation is the only one that really counts. Consequently, these kids learn that they are of little value; their parents’ lack of concern, guidance and structure proves that, and day care centers only reinforce that conviction.

We pretend we don’t know why kids shoot up their schools, why they join gangs and now, how we got a Jihad Johnny. With the selfish, uninvolved parenting these kids get, it’s a miracle it’s no worse than it is.