Three Rivers Muse & News

The Kaweah Commonwealth is the weekly newspaper of Three Rivers, Calif. The coverage area includes what is collectively known as "Kaweah Country," from the highest peaks in Sequoia National Park to the Sierra Nevada foothills to the floor of the San Joaquin Valley.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

April, past and present

Eight years ago our son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. When he was released from the hospital and we were attempting to settle into a new normal at home, the Columbine High School shootings occurred and 13 were killed.

That week in April 1999 was devastating, both personally and collectively as a society. I’ve been in a reflective mood this week as I recall that our son has now had this disease, for which there is no cure, for half of his life.
As I introspectively marked this anniversary, the news broke about the Virginia Tech massacre, the worst mass shooting to ever occur in the U.S. Sadly, such violence is most pervasive in the United States.

Our society is in moral decay and our children are the victims. I lose sleep each night trying to get my youngest teen through adolescence safe and intact. As the parent of a college student, I understand the exciting and brilliant futures that were savagely stolen from so many families on Monday.

These days, it’s parents against the world. Core values taught at home are constantly undermined through an onslaught of media and more, such as social-networking websites, video games, music, television and movies, and peers who are allowed unlimited access to it all.

There is no escaping any of this in Three Rivers as it was possible to do when raising children here in the past.

The Internet, for instance, permeates every home and offers children a level-playing field, which can be good or bad. The technology knows no boundaries such as a remote, rural location and destroys all naiveté.
Just this month in the news, we’ve witnessed brutality, violence, and intolerance. These are primitive actions in this civilized society of the 21st century, but it becomes especially alarming when students are both the perpetrators and the victims.

I am proud of the next generation for what they have the potential to achieve. I fear for the horrific events they may witness or perhaps initiate. They are at once the victims and the solution.

During our young people’s school years, they have been exposed to the violence of campus shootings, 9/11, and war. This is a new frontier and we, the adults, need to wake up and be proactive.

We’ve allowed selfishness and disconnect to be learned. We’ve watched our children become desensitized to violence and increasingly troubled.
The Internet can be blamed in part for the change. Want to build a bomb? Get a recipe for meth? View porn? Buy a police badge? Spew hate, racism, sexism, homophobia? Buy drugs? Download pirated music and movies? Steal someone’s identity? Obtain a gun? Plan a hijacking? Be a suicide bomber? Play a violent video game (there is actually a simulation of the Columbine High School shootings)? This and more can be accomplished with the click of a mouse.

Corporate greed is another player in the demoralization of society. No matter how morbid, distasteful, or shocking, if it will turn a buck, it’s for sale.

There is no substitute for plugged-in parenting. Communication is important; to cope, to understand, to be aware of what’s going on.

It’s a steep, uphill battle against a powerful gun lobby that protects the right to bear arms that our founding fathers could have never foreseen would exist, and a video-game industry and the Internet that take advantage of the First Amendment. So it is more productive to heal this nation one child at a time.

We are duty-bound to reconnect. Take time to communicate with kids, be a mentor, a role model, or just catch an eye and smile. Even brief moments of guidance, support, empathy, kindness, or love will help offset the negative influences that are encountered on a day-to-day basis.

Since the mass shootings in recent history have all been instigated by males, pay special attention to boys, whether they act like they want it or not. And, finally, let’s aid the troubled before they become the troublesome.

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