Violence

I’m taking a departure from writing about the Old West today. My thoughts have been centered around the horrific event that took place at a movie theatre in Colorado. I’ve read articles and heard talking heads blame violence on television and in motion pictures for the shooting and I wanted to respond. From cave drawings depicting the hunt to tribal war songs to a little tome called the Bible, the portrayal of violence has, in one way or another, been a part of human discourse ever since we stopped dragging our knuckles on the ground and started using them to give each other noogies. It seems like everyone is looking for someone to blame when people go bad, but motion pictures and television aren’t the biggest influences on kids. We are. There’s probably more real emotional violence and bad vibes at the average American family dinner table than in an entire season of C-S-I. At least that was my experience. I don’t know if I really buy that there’s a connection between violent movies and TV and violent behavior. I mean, I grew up watching a steady diet of Dark Shadows, Cannon, Johnny Quest and Bugs Bunny. I never once thought it was okay to load a gun and go hunting “wabbit” in public places. That being said, there are many shows that prey on our morbid curiosity: When Animals Kill, Brushes with Death, Shark Wranglers, and one of the worst of all, Housewives of New Jersey. Watching the local news isn’t any better. In reporting violent crime, the local news comports itself with all the dignity and responsibility of Moe, Larry, and Shemp locked in a haunted house. I think it’s all very simple. Forget government intervention, forget blaming all the bad that happens on movies and television and get back to basics. Stay home with your loved ones, turn the TV off, pray together, talk together, get to know one another. Tell the people in your life that have had a positive impact on you just how much their influence means. Hug them like there’s no tomorrow because as we know for many of the men and women who went to the movies this past weekend in Colorado there was no tomorrow.