Define 'mistake'

Dear Editor,

A "mistake" is what must have occurred if your checkbook fails to balance. A "mistake" is what color-blind individuals realize when wearing one black and one navy-blue sock. A "mistake" is what occurs when you are wrongly identified to be the perpetrator in a crime --which brings us to the point -- criminal intent.

The vandalism done at McCook Senior High School was criminal -- not a "mistake." Suppose the outcome had been severe injury or loss of life? My wife is a teacher at the school -- if she had slipped on the oily stairs and suffered a broken neck, would the parents of the perpetrators heal her paralysis, or worse -- would they come to the funeral Mass and apologize for the "mistake" of her death, as caused by their sons?

These young men, well beyond the age of reason, were fully cognizant of their actions. They did not expect to get caught because their arrogance exceeded their intelligence. So, some were "star athletes" -- in these parts that is the privileged class, and, no doubt, a group rarely held accountable for their indulgences, indiscretions and "mistakes" -- especially if doing so might upset the chance of a home-team victory.

Some had the courage to "own up" to their guilt -- and confession is good for the soul. However, did the guilty have the guts to inform their parents of the planned "trespass" before they carried out the deed? -- obviously not. So then, their courage is not laudable.

The lesson here is that too many parents allow their sons and daughters to set the rules of the game. Their children have never been made to pay a hard price for bad behavior, less their precious self esteem suffer harm. Predictably the behavior gets worse, as children become more prideful and further emboldened to seek greater thrills. Only after the unforeseen consequences of their actions are realized do we hear the plea for mercy -- and always under the pretext of "they made a mistake."

We suffer an abundance of "mistakes" because we have a lack of justice, in its true sense. True justice requires punishment to fit the crime -- to satisfy the offended party, to secure deterrence, and to restore proper order -- so to prevent a "lynch mob" mentality from ever taking root. The "mistake" is to believe that contrition defers justice.

Bruce C.A. Desautels,

Stratton