Jeremy

"Jeremy" clearly demonstrates that the school bullying problem along with dysfunctional single or two absentee parent homes has been around since the 90's. Contrary to everyone's belief Sandyhook was not the first major school shooting. Columbine was, and that happened in the 1990's. We as a society have been aware of the effects of constant bullying for decades. This song just drives that nail a little further into the coffin. This song was written before Columbine or Sandy Hook or Virginia Tech.

If a grunge rock band can see what is happening and write a very powerful song about it, then why can society not get their act together, and put counselors back in the schools, give the schools a budget big enough to operate so kids like this won't fall through the cracks, maybe spend some money on our own infrastructure which has failed not only my generation, but the generation after, and the generation after that.

I mean, honestly, a grunge band from the Pacific Northwest saw this happening long before any of the "massacres", that everyone seems so surprised about. If this song was written prior to the "advent" of the school massacre, perhaps, it would have behooved people to pay attention. School shootings are not new even though reacts to each one in horror as if it is the first one, and nobody seems to remember Kent State. That happened in the 60's. Our society needs to pay more than lip service to this problem. We have kids shooting classmates, we have committing suicide to escape the constant bullying. When do we wake the F*&^ up, and realize we are failing as a society.......

I was bullied from the time I was in Grammar School all the way through High School. Yes, I entertained thoughts of blowing up my school, and I had a few people on my list. But, I had self control. i had no support at home. I had to support myself. And that self control and knowledge of who I was not along with a few astute teachers kept me from going off the deep end. Bullying is incredibly real, and can be mentally damaging for life. It sucks up everything you are, turns it into something perverse and wrong and to be laughed at, and then spits you back out.

The song "Jeremy" only predicted what was going to happen, and guess what? They were right. Interesting side note, the album "Ten" which contains the song "Jeremy" was put out in 1991. Columbine happened in 1999. That's 8 years. That's too long to ignore a growing problem, and every time this happens, people are horrified for a few weeks and then they forget. Nothing is accomplished but, a hell a lip service is paid to the issue, and then the issue goes away until it happens again. Which it most definitely will.

Sorry for the dissertation. Bullying in schools and anywhere is a passionate pet peeve of mine as is our government's seeming inability to effect any change on this front. Pearl Jam noticed in 1991. Columbine happened in 1999, Sandy Hook in 2013, Virginia tech was between the two. Notice a pattern?