Back in early 2003, I was working on a story/article idea for the school newspaper.  I brought it up to the teacher’s attention.  She thought it had potential, so she told me to run with it.  I did.

Once I turned in the first draft, she read it and automatically rejected it for the latest edition.  Told me to rework it some more.  I did.

Turned it in again for the next issue, got rejected once again.   And her advice without any direction: rework it some more.   And would you guess it, I DID!   

This was the only story that took me months to write/fine tune.  And after a while, I realized why the teacher kept rejecting it for the school newspaper.  She saw a better use for this piece.

Every high school newspaper in the Utica district gets a shot at writing pieces for The Macomb Daily (county’s own publication).   In may seem like peanuts to you, but it was a pretty big deal for an young high school journalist!    Macomb Daily even gave us our own section in the paper called OUR TURN.

Once the final draft got turned in to her, she then turned it in to The Macomb Daily, along with the other school newspaper staff pieces.   Little did I know, Macomb Daily saw something impressive with this piece.

I think a couple of weeks later (forgot really how long the stretch of time was), all our stories were printed and I made it to FRONT PAGE!   I was shocked.  They even made the layout of my story fancy.   

This piece is still timely and relevant.  Although I could write an entire new piece about my thoughts in regards to the illogical assholes that still believe movies/video games/music are the product placement of a violent America (ignoring the news, religion, history), I will let this 9-year-old article speak for itself!   

 ***

Entertainment Values

The Debate of all debate begins with a simple point of a finger.  

It’s not something profound like going to war, abortion, or terrorism.  It’s whether or not music, movies, and video games are too violent and or explicit for young people.  It sounds to me like a simple case of ‘let’s point our fingers at some elements that are too easy to blame.’

The funny part about this long overdue and pointless debate is that the same people who blame the entertainment media for sending the wrong messages to kids never miss a day of CNN/Fox News.

The ratings must have reached an all-time high during Bill Clinton’s sex scandals, and of course, people were glued to the TV during the dreadful attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.  I’m not saying CNN/Fox News is all bad.  But in simple terms, to blame the media one must seek the bigger picture rather than countless hours on video games, 70-mintues of music or two hours of movie-making magic.

From day one, music has always been the enemy, from Elvis, to the days parents thought rock 'n’ roll was the devil, to the first explicit lyrics, to what is known now as suggestive violent music.  Some of Eminem’s songs suggest some brainless kid should shoot himself or someone else.  

Music isn’t to blame for the Columbine High School shootings in 1998.  But the police looked through the killers’ CDs, found the one they didn’t know or understood such as Marilyn Manson, and blamed him for what happened.   

“Any idiot who walks in somewhere and kills someone with a gun because some moron with a guitar told them to, they they’re morons themselves and they would have done it anyway,” The Who guitarist Pete Townsend once said during an interview soon after he heard parents of the victims were starting to blame Manson for the tragedy.   And he had a good point.   Besides, whatever reference Manson sang (or attempted to sing) in 'Beautiful People’ had nothing to with a shooting range.  

A few months ago, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, a likely Democratic presidential contender in 2004, said, “The content of many cutting edge games is becoming more and more vivid, violent, and offensive to our most basic values.'  Interesting.  Lieberman was the man who campaigned with Al Gore, who was the vice President for Clinton.   Have we forgotten Clinton breaking his own wedding vows?

I guess that’s all part of our basic value system.  We can’t play games in which we shoot up zombies in graveyard or commit grand theft auto, Sim-style, yet in real life, we can cheat on our wives, lie in front of America and get away with it.

I’m not much on games, but I did have a Nintendo, and if I remember correctly, the objective of 'Super Mario Brothers’ was to squash cute little creatures to score points.  Society really went haywire during those good old 1980s.  I mean, that really subjected kids to higher levels of violence.   

My favorite aspect of this whole argument is that people claim movies are too violent.  These same people music not watch the news often.  What one sees on the tube reflects the entertainment value and Hollywood magic.  Movies don’t influence violence.   

The next time you watch Fox 2 News or WDIV 4, notice how much they talk about sex offensives, rape, drive-by shootings or dead babies in trashcans.  The truth hurts, doesn’t it?   The average viewer doesn’t sit down to watch those amazing uplifting stories of such drama and award-winning pieces.  It’s like driving through I-75 and passing an accident.  We get a kick out of watching gruesome images.  Don’t be embarrassed.  Everyone is like that.  It’s a little something I like to call 'human nature.’  

I remember when I was a kid, watching 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and that show was labeled VIOLENT.   Those same parents picked 'Looney Tunes’ over 'Turtles.'   Wiley Coyote never compromised his differences for the good of mankind.  He tried all sorts of ways to kill poor little Road Runner.

To blame the media, one must think of where it all came from.  It would be nice to live in a peace-love society, but it truth seeks reality, it would be a dull place to live.

***

I don’t remember what exactly inspired me to write this, but my thoughts haven’t changed much since writing it.  I did get inspired to post this now after learning on TMZ (a more respected news source than Fox News!), that Torrence Brown, Jr., one of the theater patrons during the shooting over the weekend, is suing a good amount of people, including Warner Brothers, for releasing a violent movie that provoked a violent man to act violently.   

I don’t know who I am disgusted more - this Holmes nut-job, or Brown Jr.

Throughout the weekend, I’ve heard all the debates (from gun control to IS HOLLYWOOD TOO VIOLENT?!?)    It’s quite scary now, not knowing whether or not it’s safe to go to your local multiplex.  But I don’t blame the movies (though, if there was a shooting during the latest Adam Sandler masterpiece, I think we would be having an entirely different conversation!)

Instead of focusing the debate on whether or not a movie is too violent, how about, as I notice some people have already mentioned - question how/why guns are so easily purchased these days?!?   

I highly recommend seeing a movie called 'Bowling for Columbine.'   Informative, yet, sad.  :’(