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I'm old, Ok, I'm old. I have old-fashioned ideas, by today's
standards. I believe in the good in this world and the beauty that can
be found all around us.
It's not on television, that's for sure. It's hard to tell where the fictitious shows end and real life begins.
Law
and Order, in the face of the writer's strike I suppose, has repeatedly
shown an episode that makes me want to vomit. It's about a serial
killer who tortures his victims - women - in the most heinous ways.
It's one in which our female star has actually broken down and cried
from the horror of the situation. Imagine, a female cop crying. One
can't even begin to fathom the terror the victims of this sick person
had to endure. And that was a just a show.
Well, turn on the news
this week and you hear the story of a man who kills and burns a
pregnant woman and buries her body in a shallow grave, and by the
footage, not even in a hidden location.
There's a difference here? What's real, what's not?
The
shows on television are full of violence, more so than ever. Blowing up
cities, school, homes, cars, shooting, killing, maiming, you name it.
And it's all in the name of entertainment. I am not entertained.
Move
on to "60 minutes" and there is more abhorrent footage. First the
intentional slaughter of the blue fin tuna for the sake of sushi.
That's it. So people in Japan can eat rolled up fish and rice.
Much
more difficult to watch was the segment on the rape of African women in
the name of war. Females being assaulted by gangs of men. As young as
three years and as old as 73 and hundreds in between. Many times the
entire village is lined up to watch. A brother was made to watch as his
sister was gang raped and then, when he would not rape her, he was
killed. The women are badly injured and fear contracting AIDS. They
have no defense and no protection. Some receive medical treatment,
others do not.
No one is stopping this atrocity.
This is not television fantasy. It's for real.
How
have we come to this? How do we let this go on? Why do we let this
stuff in our home. Why do we let our children watch such trash and
violence?
You can make fun of the "Waltons" and "Little House on
the Prairie" all you want. You can say the shows of the 50s were too
simple and naive. They were fictitious, yes, but those shows did not
fill our minds with images of hate, violence and unimaginable
atrocities. Those images never, ever leave.
They lie in the archives of the mind and cannot be erased.
They
eat away at souls, and turn people against each other. They harm
families and relationships. They make this a very unpleasant and
unhappy world.
I wonder what is to become of us, because it
appears to be so acceptable. I can't understand how people can tolerate
all the violence and horror.
If someone can tell me how this can be enjoyable, please do so. I personally can't stomach any more of it.
I know there's a wonderful world out there somewhere, I'm just afraid it's never going to survive.
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