Each workday, I follow winding, tree-lined Brock Road past scattered houses and an elementary school on my way to and from work. It's a nice drive in a car, a fun one on a motorcycle. Deer occasionally cross my path, so it's wise to stay alert on the entire 10-mile stretch.
Brock Road Elementary School is one of the landmarks along the semi-rural route. In the morning, I'm always passing it while children are arriving, so there are many cars pulling in and out of the parking lot, and a 25 mph speed limit in force. Oftentimes on my ride, I'll come upon a school bus stopping to pick up small children, seemingly smaller than their backpacks, at some of the driveways that abut the road.
On my way home, the school is nearly deserted, though I've used its covered front entrance as shelter during bad storms while on my bike. More than once, I've sat on the bench outside the main entrance as thunder and lightning played out just yards away. More than once, the principal or other school staff have invited me to come inside and out of the weather, but I've always declined, content to sit under the roof line until the storm eased. Such has been my interaction with that school, and those were honestly my only thoughts of it.
Until last Friday. The ferocious, barbaric attack on innocent children, teachers, and administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, changed all that. I can't imagine passing Brock Road Elementary on my commute without thinking about that carnage. I can't imagine watching those small children climb onto the buses without seeing the faces of those killed by yet another madman with yet another cache of high-capacity, high-caliber weapons.
We can and we should talk about banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. We can and we should talk about keeping weapons of mass murder out of the hands of those with mental issues. We can and we should tighten background checks that are inconsistently enforced on those buying guns at gun shows or from individuals.
But we have to do more. We have to look at the kind of culture we have become. Make no mistake, I believe in both the first and second amendments. However, just as I believe the second amendment doesn't mean we should all have access to AR-15s, I think we need to think twice before exposing our children to the most vile and violent video games, movies, and other media.
When I was going to high school in a 1970s-era semi-rural suburb of Chicago, some of my classmates would come to school with a rifle or shotgun hanging on the rack in their pickup truck. There was never a thought that would be a problem. They were coming to school after going hunting in the early morning before school, or they were going hunting after school. The idea that one of them would ever use a weapon against a schoolmate or teacher was as alien as imagining one of us was the king of France.
What has changed? Murder and mayhem are now seen as the basis for numerous video games aimed at children. It's hard to get through a television program without seeing commercials for shoot-'em-up war games.
Lethal violence is perfectly acceptable in PG-13 movies, but if a breast appears on the screen, that brings an R rating. Suggestions of sex are restricted for those under 17, but slash-and-gash horror is considered good fun for tweens and younger.
Maybe I'm becoming an old coot, but things really
have changed since I was a kid. Sure, there were scary movies, but the violence was suggested and almost never actually shown. We would get scared, but we wouldn't get desensitized. We didn't get used to seeing dead bodies as just another element in a game.
When I first saw "Saving Private Ryan," the graphic violence of the D-Day landings -- a plot element necessary to understand the horror of war -- brought tears to my eyes and I found it hard not to weep openly. By contrast, this type of violence is the
raison d'etre of too many games, movies, and television shows.
So, what to do? I have no quick or easy answers. I truly hope those in power, and even more importantly, those of us who put those people in power, will rally to find some rational and responsible actions and then take them.
As for me, I will write letters, I will communicate with my representatives in Congress and beyond, and I will appreciate just a little more every child I see climbing aboard a school bus on my commute. I don't have children of my own, but I hope those of you who do will give them a hug and a kiss every day. They are your blessing and our country's hope.
