I was going to talk a little this week about Mayor Giuliani’s conciliatory comments following his withdrawal from the Senate race, but a massacre in a Flushing Wendy’s will delay that.

What is going on?

I cannot believe that two thousand dollars was worth five people. But it doesn’t stop there does it.

Livery cabbies shot for $30, $20 or for nothing. Everyday people — just trying to make a living, trying to do the right thing and dead because of it. What is worse is that it’s our babies doing it. I thought that somehow we were making progress in teaching them the value of human life, but it seems that might not be the case at all.

You can see their disregard of values early in their lives. I volunteer at an after-school program and while most of the kids are just rambunctious, a few are on their way to pulling a trigger. It’s frightening to see that blank look of numbness in the eyes of a child.

Where does it come from?

It more than likely — but not exclusively — comes from living in an environment where love and respect aren’t the high priorities of the day. Getting over, getting props and getting paid are the new priorities.

But the damage done by these gunmen goes well beyond the wake of pain and suffering the relatives of these victims will drown in.

Just what is a restaurant manager to do when looking across the table at an applicant, who has a prior criminal record?

What would you do?

Even though we know it will make rehabilitation difficult for people who are truly sorry for their mistakes, we will shake our heads no.

Then there are the kids who need money for their families. They look at the risks of selling drugs or stealing versus the risk of working in a low-paying, backbreaking job.

You do the math.

From now on, I will struggle inside when I tell a young person to get their start working in a place like Wendy’s. I worked in a Wendy’s during college — so many years ago – and I even had the experience of being robbed once. But we knew, and the crooks knew, that the money wasn’t worth it. They knew they would get it without a fight. Today, it doesn’t seem to matter to criminals who, as the law says, "act with depraved indifference to human life."

I know that the system may be slanted against us, but I personally am sick and tired of the blame game.

One need look no further than the parents of most of these thugs to place the finger point mantle.

You say, "Well what if his parents weren’t around?" It’s still their fault.

You need a license to drive a car, to teach children in school, even to prune trees in your own backyard, but you don’t need a license to have and then influence a kid. No experience, no requirements, no standards . . . just mix and voila! I hear the way some people talk to their kids and say it’s no wonder they end up angry and hateful.

Of course doing something about unabridged procreation among individuals who might not make the best parents, strikes at the heart of a free society.

For me sterilization,and state controlled birth control are too high of a price to pay for just a sense of order.

We know through experience that deviant behavior comes from all socio-economic levels. But the violence does lend to the argument that women who know they are not ready to be mothers shouldn’t be blocked from making certain choices for themselves, within reason.

I sit here and say to myself, what can we do? What can I do?

We’re out-manned, out-spent, out-influenced by a media (That’s right I said MEDIA) that glorifies violence, conspicuous consumption, bad language and bad manners. Disciplining kids is politically incorrect now. Even saying something to other people’s kids who are acting up could buy you a bullet.

Where am I going with all of this? I’m not really sure myself.

All I know right now is that I’m angry.

I’m angry for the victims, their families, and their loved ones.

I’m angry for the kids who we’ll lose because they won’t choose to work in fear of the risk, or who choose crime because the risk is equal but the pay-off more rewarding.

I’m angry at the adults who shouldn’t be allowed to be parents, who through their actions or inactions, will help create more methodical murderers who are angry at the world.

Historians say if the Titanic’s steer man had a few more seconds of warning, the ship would have missed the iceberg all together, avoiding the disaster we all now know about.

Look at the children or even the adults you know. What do you see when you look at them and into their eyes? Could an influential nudge in the right direction avoid a catastrophe like the one at Wendy’s?

Common sense gives you your answer.