I’m fired up - proceed with caution.
I normally try to steer clear of political or social commentary on this site because I want my blog to be a happy little place where everyone comes for cookies and milk and warm fuzzies. I know that my opinions are not shared by all my readers and I don’t want to get into ugly sparring. But…sometimes you have to say it. This morning the local paper ran a story on the marked increase of violent threats around the city since Monday. Most are against colleges and high schools but there have also been phone calls threatening grocery stores, shopping centers, and banks. One of the callers was quoted as saying he would go down in history and “you haven’t seen anything yet.” When (heaven forbid) another massacre happens, a good portion of the blame should be squarely on the shoulders of the ratings-hungry media - from local papers who have splashed giant photos of Monday’s killer on their front pages, to the cable news channels for their nonstop, blood-soaked coverage, and especially NBC for airing that madman’s ridiculous manifesto. Instead of being treated as the sick, deranged murderer he is, they have turned him into a hero and martyr for thousands of twisted people. Now sickos everywhere aspire to his level and it’s only a matter of time before this happens again. The press defends their actions by claiming the public “needs to know.” I don’t need to know this. I have been consciously avoiding TV news this week and have not seen the killer’s video. I read about it online and that was enough. I don’t need nonstop coverage of some brainless reporter oozing fake sympathy asking students how it felt to be shot or to see their classmates gunned down. I don’t need to see body bags lined up in the street. I don’t need to see the eyes of man who did this over and over and over. You can bet that media execs are delighted by this tragedy. Imagine the whoops of joy at NBC when that package arrived. A scoop! Nevermind that airing it brought even more grief to the victims and their families. Nevermind that NBC crossed far beyond the realm of good taste. Nevermind that they’ve deliberately and quite literally endangered more lives - I suppose higher ratings and increased advertising revenue is worth a few dozen common Americans now and then, eh? Just as long as it’s not their families, their children, their loved ones, all’s fair in freedom of the press. In a related vein, my neighbor’s 14-year-old son brought home a note yesterday about an activity in his Social Studies class. He and several other classmates have been singled out to be “second class citizens” for the whole of next week. They’ll have to sit on the floor, stay after class and clean up the room, walk behind the other class members, and silently accept any verbal taunting and digs the “first class citizens” choose to throw at them. What could possibly be the point of this? To show a bunch of white kids how it feels to be a minority? Even if that were the case, minority kids don’t sit on the floor and stay after class to clean up. And chances are the kids already have a much better grasp of the kinds of taunting that goes on than the teacher can ever fabricate. To me, it seems pointless and in light of this week, dangerous. You can bet that 14-year-olds are going to tease and taunt based on real weaknesses. You can bet they won’t leave this experiment in the classroom. You can bet someone’s feelings are going to be angered and hurt. Yes, do I think most people need to toughen up and quit letting every little thing offend, but to deliberately provoke conflict is completely inappropriate. If they need to learn this lesson, why can’t they do something positive and productive next week instead of something negative? Besides, if white kids want to know how it feels to be discriminated against, the teacher should talk about BET, Cinco de Mayo, the Latin Grammys, Black history month, MLK day, and the slew of other race-based events we have in this country. He can show them the pages and pages of college scholarships that are open only to minorities or teach them about affirmative action. They can talk about the outcry and the lawsuits that would and do ensue if someone tried to launch any of those same type of things focused on white people. It’s there, we just pretend to ignore it.
One Response to “I’m fired up - proceed with caution.”
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April 22nd, 2007 at 9:56 am
I love the post. It is highly inappropriate to keep glorifying a killer. Any press for a wacko like that is too much press! I believe in freedom of the press and freedom of speech but I also believe in good taste and respect. Also I have seen studies where people were ‘forced minorities’ and they were ridiculous. The studies all turned out the way the researchers thought they would. People were generally much nastier than anticipated and everyone walked away feeling horrible.