DP Tool Club 12/CD_ASCQ_12_0294.iso/vrac/sun9402.zip/EDIT

Text File | 1994-02-02 | 5KB | 102 lines

STTS Editorial
Copyright (c) 1994, Joe DeRouen
All rights reserved


As I write this, President Bill Clinton's state of the union address is
but a few hours old. Mr. Clinton spoke eloquently, clearly, and with
great insight.

I'm not a democrat. I never have been. Nor am I a republican. I vote for
whomever I feel can do the best job. In 1992 I voted for Bill Clinton
and, thus far, haven't been disappointed.

President Clinton spoke of the decay of America's moral fiber and
philosophies. He hinted at several solutions, but didn't really come up
with a feasible end to the problems.

Who could? Whatever mess we've gotten ourselves into (and it IS a mess)
it's going to take a lot more to get us out. Perhaps we need to look
deeper into the problems. We can see the effects - the LA riots, last
year's Dallas Cowboys victory parade fiasco, the shootout and subsequent
fire in Waco, gangs killing one another on the streets, carjacking and
drive-by shootings. But what caused it?

Certainly not television. Sen. Paul Simon and Janet Reno (to mention but
two) seem to want a scapegoat, and television is it. They seem to
believe that with lessened violence on the small screen and viewer
discretion warnings that America's seeming lack of respect for human
life will up and vanish. It isn't going to happen.

Television, as does movies, reflect what the public wants to see. If
we didn't want it, they wouldn't put it on. It's that simple. As a
culture, we thrive on John Wayne Bobbitt's severed penis story. We adore
the drama of Tonya Harding's battle to clear herself of Nancy Kerrigan's
attack. We lust to learn more of Michael Jackson's alleged molestations
of children.

They put on what we want to watch. Television doesn't corrupt. People
do. Change what we want, and television changes to reflect that. We
can't blame the source on the end result. It just doesn't work that way.

It isn't the guns, either. I'm all for gun control, but I'm convinced
that it's really too late for it. If there wasn't the violence, there
wouldn't be the guns. Taking away guns is really only tackling the
expression of the problem and not the problem itself. Knives kill, too.
People will always find a way to kill.

And it isn't drugs. To be sure, drug use (and theft to buy drugs)
involves itself in a tremendous amount of crime. But if it wasn't drugs,
it would be something else. Remember prohibition? It was alcohol then.
To be honest, I believe in drug legalization. But even that wouldn't
stop the violence.

If it isn't television, if it isn't guns, if it isn't drugs - what is
it? That's what we need to ask ourselves. We need to ask ourselves, both
individually and as a culture, a lot of hard questions.

We want to hear the worst of those around us. Why? Perhaps to better
ourselves. Perhaps to prove that they, too, America's larger than life
pop icons, are merely human. Maybe it's a form of self-hate, loathing
what we feel we've become and feel powerless to stop?

Why do we vote Bill Clinton into public office and, when he proceeds to
do everything that he said he would do - more so than the last twelve
years of presidents - we lambast him and tear him down? Why do we want
the underdog and, when we get him, abandon him to the wolves?

Why are we, as Americans, so unforgiving of even the slightest flaws in
our neighbors, flaws we know we have in ourselves? Why would we rather
hurt our own people than trust the man across the street?

Why do we value life so little that we'll walk away as a stranger is
beaten or raped on our own street? Why do we hate instead of love? And
why is it that if we DO choose to love we're looked down upon by those
who sneeringly chose hate as their totem?

I could ask a thousand more "whys". Why is it "cool" not to give a damn?
Why is it okay to hate someone who's different than you are? Why are we
afraid to ask these questions?

I don't have the answers. I wish I did. But I'm NOT afraid to ask the
questions. We must all ask the question, of ourselves, of each other.
And we mustn't be afraid to learn the answers. Above all else, we must
not be afraid to change.

Indeed, we must embrace change. We must look into ourselves and see us
for what we truly are. If we don't instill good, solid values into our
children, no one else will. We must decide for ourselves what these
value are to be. No one, not even a President, can decide this for you.

If America wants to survive, if we want to stop killing our brothers and
sisters, stop hurting those we love, the violence needs to end. How?

I don't know. But to paraphrase a line from a song by the
much-misaligned Mr. Jackson (whom I refuse to believe is guilty before
proven such, despite whatever out of court settlements is made) we need
to start with the man in the mirror. It has to start there.


Joe DeRouen, Jan. 1994