Dear Parents

This is a letter that should have been written years ago, probably after Columbine, or some other happening involving children. If you were anywhere near Twitter or a TV yesterday, you heard the mind-blowing story of Falcon Henne. The little boy supposedly was trapped, airborne in an experimental balloon-esque craft after having released it himself. After a four hour chase, that saw the media get airborne coverage faster than the authorities, the balloon was brought down with Falcon not in the balloon, but in the attic. Now, does something about that entire situation seem a bit, I don't know, dumb?

Now parents, at how many points could an embarrassing event have been prevented yesterday? If you said anything more than three, then you don't even have to read this letter. Man, they could have been watching the kid, they could have had their experimental craft protected in some way, or maybe just looked EVERYWHERE for the child. As a parent, there should be certain things that are a given when it comes to your child. Perhaps your kid is, let's say REALLY imaginative and inquisitive. Why in the world would you allow him to wander around a Colorado ranch by himself, with an experimental balloon ready to launch? Come on, you've got to have a little more sense than that.

But if you don't and just so happen to bring the child on a show without TALKING to him and REPRIMANDING him, what do you expect for this really imaginative and inquisitive child to do? It's parents like these that raise destructive children and wonder why the world is crumbling before us. I don't mean to say that Falcon is a troublemaker, because as much as a cop-out as it is, he is a kid. One thing about kids, is that if you don't steer them in the right direction, black or white, big or little, smart or dumb (sad, but true), they will get into trouble. Any person who's been a child knows that. As parents, your job is to prevent that deviation and help them understand why it's wrong. Falcon's parents, whatever hippie cult they were raised in, obviously aren't to adept at that. It's a damn shame America had to find out because of their 'experimental' balloon...