Sociopaths

Victim One, the first known alleged victim of abuse by former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky, had to leave his school in the middle of his senior year because of bullying, his counselor said Sunday.

Officials at Central Mountain High School in Clinton County weren’t providing guidance for fellow students, who were reacting badly about Joe Paterno’s firing and blaming the 17-year-old, said Mike Gillum, the psychologist helping his family. Those officials were unavailable for comment this weekend.

The name-calling and verbal threats were just too much, he said.

I really do think there has been a huge cultural shift into immoral depravity and narcissism with younger people in America. It could be that the anonymous nature of the internet fosters and enables tortured individuals to lash out at others without consequence, but it seems to have crossed over into "real life".

True story - when I was 15, I told a friend, in confidence, that I was gay. It quickly got around to pretty much everyone else. It wasn't pleasant by any means, and I lost some friends and gained some new ones.. but I was never.. ever.. harassed about it. I even continued to play on some athletic teams without a single issue.

In hind sight, I should have never said anything, but ultimately it didn't make much difference in my life either way. Today, kids are just viscous, and I really don't know why.

Sometime in my 30s, my best childhood friend from the age of 5 until 15 called me to apologize. I still have the memory of the very first time I saw him, and no, it was nothing romantic or anything like that. It's just a memory that stuck. When he called, I basically ignored him. I'm not sure if that was because I was basically betrayed at an important time in my life, or because I tend not to talk about things I'm not comfortable with. It was probably the latter.

I just looked him up on facebook. Two of my sisters are friends of his.