2. Have you noticed how young the people are who have gathered at both the White House and Ground Zero?But what if it isn't any of that? What if it's something else entirely?
These are people who would have been in grade school during 9/11. What's that about? Is this just an excuse for a bunch of college kids and "young people" to get together for a big ol' televised party? Is it an effort to "be a part of history"? Is this reaction due to these folks having been raised with bin Laden as their bogeyman? Those of us who are a little older, who were actual adults for 9/11, don't seem to be reacting with this party behavior. Is the difference that we remember the feeling of that day and so are more conflicted and thoughtful and reflective now, while this younger group doesn't really remember the day and is instead responding to the death of their childhood bogeyman?
For years, the media has been sliding more and more out of control. They now make the most mundane happening into a salacious story. They strive to make the news into something for which advertisers will pay them lots and lots of money. Stories that are actually quite dramatic on their own will be covered 24/7, will be the subject of teaser ads that run again and again during prime-time television, and will likely receive a dramatic title. Newscasters report stories about serial killers with a sparkle in their eye: a chance to increase ratings, to get noticed, to get a raise or a better time slot.
TV is filled with violence. Sex and nudity is relegated to midnight and cable. Murder and mayhem is prevalent throughout prime time. And how many high school and college kids (and likely middle schoolers as well) watch Jerry Springer and his ilk? Then there's the internet. Oy.
When kids aren't watching all of this, they're playing games, either on TV or on their phones. How many of those games are full of violence? It doesn't matter if you're the good guy or the bad guy. It doesn't matter if the goal is to be the greatest war hero ever or the baddest gansta in the hood. The point is that kids are being fed violence day in and day out. And no one's talking to them about it and no one's giving them an alternative.
We all know that kids know the difference between a cartoon or video game and real life. But that's not the issue. The issue is that when you see something over and over and over again, you become desensitized to it.
For the vast majority of these young people's lives, we've been at war. At the moment, we're up to what, three? You can watch modern warfare live on network TV. You can watch it on the internet. You can watch people jumping out of the World Trade Center. You can watch Saddam Hussein being executed (and hear him being taunted just beforehand). And you can watch it all again and again and again. You can even watch it on your phone wherever and whenever you'd like.
And on top of all of this, for nearly a decade Washington, D.C., was home to an administration that was all about fear mongering. We needed to keep emergency supplies on hand in case of attack. We needed to keep an eye on our threat level. We needed to stop taking shampoo with us on airplanes. We needed to protect ourselves and our loved ones and our homes and our stuff because there were all kinds of bad people out there in the world who wanted to hurt all of us and to take all of our stuff. We needed to loosen gun control laws so that we could all arm ourselves and protect ourselves from this Big Bad Evil.
We needed to remember at all times that we're just not safe.
This is the world these revelers grew up in. Perhaps this is the world that has led so many people to actually celebrate death. Perhaps this is the world that has led to so many people wanting to see the violent, gruesome image of a murdered man.
Is this the world that you want for yourself, for your children, your parents, your loved ones? Is this the world you want to leave to the future?
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