There is one lesson, in particular, that comes to mind.
More on that in a moment.
Actor Morgan Freeman was asked by an interviewer for his thoughts regarding the killings in Newtown.
"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed
people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."
There is a lesson that comes to mind here.
Meanwhile...
In an article published online today, entitled, well meaning if wishfully, "10 Ways to Put The Brakes On Mass School Shootings", the following was one of the ten.
5. Cut down on violence in the media
Some readers were concerned that fictional violence might be having real-world effects.
"If they want to ban guns, why not ban them in movies, television, and video games?" asked reader Bill Smells. "Why do we allow the media and entertainment industries to glorify weapons and killings? If we're going to start regulating and banning weapons, why not start by aggressively banning and preventing the abuse of weapons in media."
"Why do we allow our children and young adults to buy video games that put them in the position of being rewarded for shooting and killing other players? I think it's time Hollywood enact their own self-imposed ban on using weapons in any films or television productions. This would definitely reduce all kinds of violence. So why haven't they taken this bold and progressive step yet?"
There is a lesson that comes to mind here.
Meanwhile...
Criminal Minds is a very successful, dramatic television series centered around a group of FBI agents who specialize in solving cases specifically involving serial killers.
The program is, by any reasonable measure, startingly graphic in its depiction of the assorted depravity exhibited by these fictional predators, depravity in the form of physical, emotional and sexual torture, a "fictional" depravity so startingly demonstrated that one noted actor, Mandy Patinkin, found that after a couple of seasons of co-starring in the show, could no longer carry the burden of the assault on his own psyche, leaving the show to move back to show business activities more, for lack of a better word, human. A program that, to these traditionally liberal eyes, not only walks the line between hard drama and soft core porn, but pretty much leaves bloody bootprints in plain sight on the latter site of that line.
The weekly show is broadcast on network television, as opposed to cable where young, impressionable eyes might be less likely to find it.
And after having been on a number of years, it still ranks very high in the ratings.
Given the climate of the current culture, that comes, surely, as no surprise to anyone.
My roster of Facebook friends includes the parent of a generational peer of mine which puts the age of the parent as late seventies to early eighties. This senior citizen friend is a loving, caring, vibrant spouse, parent and grandparent and calling the friend conservative is an immediate and outrageous understatement, as they are outspokenly conservative in religious values, political values, moral values.
Pick a value, any value.
Recently, this respectable, and respected, senior posted the following on Facebook.
"Criminal Minds is one sick show....but I love it."
There is a lesson that comes to mind here.
The freedom of expression, along with the myriad of freedoms that we enjoy as citizens of America, pretty much invalidates any criticism that might seem warranted here.
Because, in America, we are free to report news stories as sensationally as we like, free to watch those sensational broadcasts over and over...and over.
Free to play video games that rely on violence, mayhem and/or carnage to provide the thrill of victory.
Free to watch movies that objectify women, depict violent behavior and, if the creators so deem, rely on violence, mayhem and/or carnage to provide the entertainment.
Free to produce and broadcast television shows on free network channels, regardless of any prurience that might be implied or obvious.
And free to own as many damn guns of as many makes and models as we see necessary.
Or, simply, desired.
At the same time, any reasonable human being possessed of anything resembling a brain and/or heart recoils in horror at the killings in Connecticut and, if only alone in the quiet of night, thinks, wonders, even prays for the wisdom to determine how we might stop this from ever happening again.
When we were school children, just about the age of the twenty young school children who were shot to death in the sanctuary of their classroom this week, we were just at the beginning of the process of being taught the lessons of life.
And, today, thinking about both twenty dead six or seven year old bodies lying on a school room floor and about the aforementioned freedoms that we would, likely, protect at the peril of our own lives, it's hard not to be reminded of the lessons of life.
And one very specific lesson that most of us are taught very, very early on.
Sometimes, even from the age of, say, six or seven.
We can't have it both ways.
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