Captain Australia’s Crime Fighting Journal, Entry#47
Firstly, let me confirm that I’ll be sharing more of my life story in later installments, starting with my 
boyhood experiences. I think you will find it an interesting insight into Captain Australia.
Secondly, I’d like to explore the recent schoolyard stabbing of Elliot Fletcher, age 12.
Consider for a moment, the feelings that you must have inside you in order to be able to take a sharp knife and stab another person with it. Is it Rage ? Fear ? Isolation ? Alienation ? Insanity ?
Consider how much more amplified those feelings would have to be for you to direct your murderous intent toward a child, a cute little boy of 12 years old.
The problem here: the killer was just 13 years old himself.
For my part, I feel a deep, wrenching sorrow for all parties, even the killer. This incident exactly sums up my view on the slow steady decline of society. We are drifting further and further apart from one another, and have to find a way to unify, to love and nurture instead of hate and fear.
Look at the media around this case, examine the immediate tendency to assign blame.
The first tendency, in our confusion and grief, is to demonise the child who perpetrated the killing, which I think is a mistake. In order to remedy this tear in our social fabric, we MUST understand both aggressor and victim, and find a way to reconcile each of them.
If we had to assign blame, I’d look first to the parents, after all, until a child reaches his majority aren’t the parents in-principle responsible for everything he does ?
But I think blame is largely useless. We need to ALL own this. This incident is part of who we are, and we need to each explore ways to try and turn this great tragedy into some kind of meaningful change. The blame game is, in my opinion, fruitless and pointless – a short-term exercise at best, before burying the incident under sand and forgetting it.
Is it knives ? Lets prevent kids from getting knives !
Is it school security ? Lets crucify the education minister and get metal detectors !
Is it video games ? Get better content rating on games !
Is it movies ? Ban violence in cinema !
You get my drift.
And drift is exactly the problem. Drifting apart, being separate when we need to share responsibility and be connected.
Personally, if I had to allocate blame, I’d blame all those things, and also blame the parents of the murdering child in not giving him a clearer moral compass, not moderating all the damaging content that society throws in front of him.
Elliot deserves better than a short-term bandaid, he deserves a deep commitment from us all. It won’t bring him back, but it will at least bring some meaning to his tragic passing. I don’t think laying blame is our role: I also feel a great sorrow for the parents in both families, in a way, both have lost their children irrevocably. Even the killers’ parents, who can now no longer look at their son in the same way, and have to face the rebuke and recrimination for this horrible outcome. I imagine they will torment themselves more than I could possibly hurt them.
So what does Captain Australia suggest ?
Next time you see a kid with a problem: talk to them.
Next time you see something in a kid that seems ‘off’: talk to them.
If you have children in your life: forge and foster positive relationships with them, share with them your values and opinions. Give consistently of your time with them, and approach the difficult topics, the real topics with honesty and trust and respect. Don’t leave them to get these things from computer games, the internet and movies.
So often, I’ve been surprised by the goodness in people. But unfortunately the world around us today has a tendency not to promote that, but rather to slowly erode it with apathy and confusion. The only way to counterbalance this is to reach out, to make the effort to connect and be connected.
If I could take that knife for little Elliot Fletcher, I would do it. I promise you, I swear with all my heart. Even though I love my life and the people I share it with, I’d lay it down to spare that child, a stranger to me. I would die in his place, if I could save him.
We all have to approach our relationships with children with the same commitment. Give your time, your energy, your beliefs, your lessons learnt. We can’t change the past, but we can steer our collective futures.
It makes me think of lyrics from a sweet old song by Crosby, Stills & Nash, “teach your children well”
Can you hear and do you care and
Cant you see we must be free to
Teach your children what you believe in.
Make a world that we can live in.
To Elliot’s friends and family, you have my deepest and sincerest sympathies. I wish I could help you.
