In a message dated 4/25/99 1:09:09 PM Mountain Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Message: 14
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 06:21:01 PDT
From: "Ray Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Out of the Mouths of Babes
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES
Forced Altruism List 4/25/99
Reposting permitted in complete form with the contact information at
the end intact.
Eighteen-year-old Wisconsin resident Sarah Roney wrote an essay,
inspired by the Columbine High School massacre. In it, she said what
all the pundits couldn't seem to say. Here is that essay:
FROM WHERE I STAND: A Teenager's Voice from Inside the Culture of
Death
On April 20, 1999, there was yet another gruesome shooting in
Littleton, Colorado. Kids killing kids. And again, the entire nation
in its uproar is trying to figure out why.
I am eighteen years old. I live in a small town near Madison,
Wisconsin. A small town just like the ones where these horrifying
shootings always seem to take place. Every time those stories come on
the television, I can't help but notice how easily it could be my
small town next. And I want to know why this is happening just as
badly as any parent or police chief or anchorman.
The thing is, I am right in the middle of it. I am in the same age
group as all of these high school kids. So I may have some insight for
the world that has been otherwise unattainable since these shootings
started some years ago.
The night of the Littleton shooting, as I was flipping through the
various news channels that were covering the story in Littleton,
Colorado, I heard something that struck a chord in me. An anchorman
was interviewing the mother of a victim in the Jonesboro shooting. His
question was: "If you look at America in the 1950's, you will find
that this kind of thing never happened; whereas if you look at America
today, this kind of thing is becoming more and more frequent. Why do
you think this is happening?"
The woman, of course, could not answer the question. In fact, she
didn't really even try. But I did. I thought about it for a long time
that night. And again the next morning, when my favorite morning radio
talk show asked its listeners why they thought this has been
happening. Many people said it's the parents of the kids. Many people
suggested television and video games. Many people even turned to
popular musicians, looking to put the blame somewhere.
But I will tell you what I think it is. What I, a regular teenager
riding on the coattails of Generation X, blame it on. It is not the
parents or the movies or the rock stars. It is AMERICA. It is this
culture of death, this culture in which liberals and feminists and
activists are so anxious to let anything be "OK" that the once
tightened, knotted rope of society is unraveling right beneath us.
Don't you see? There can be no order without discipline. All of those
things people think are causing children to run into a school and
shoot their teachers and peers and even kids they don't know-the
movies, the video games, the parents, the rap artists-they are only
REFLECTIONS of our society. Society breaks down, from one big
metaphoric "family" into 50 metaphoric "families" and so on and so on,
until you have the actual FAMILY, the one with the parents and the
kids and the dog. It is not one thing or two things; it is the
attitude of an entire "familiar" nation being reflected back at us in
the kids.
[Below is the part that really got to me. -RT]
Just as that anchorman suggested, something was different about the
1950's. WE WERE CONSERVATIVE. We had boundaries; we had a definite
knowledge of right and wrong throughout the entire nation. We didn't
have feminists pushing women so hard to go get a job that a woman who
didn't have a job was somehow "bad," thereby leaving kids at home with
inadequate parental guidance and often times with parents who were
truly unhappy.
We didn't have liberals fighting so avidly to legalize everything that
it was at the point of completely blurring the line between good and
bad. We didn't have a nationwide media surge dedicated to sex and
violence so intense that if you weren't playing killing video games at
age 14, then you were trying to choose between contraceptives
beforehand or abortion afterwards.
We didn't have disputes over whether or not we should help someone who
is dying die sooner-over whether or not we should ASSIST them in
committing SUICIDE. And we certainly didn't have a President who was
in favor of NATO bombing and killing children in Serbia come on the
television to grieve the loss for the families of children killed in
America.
We live in a loosely tied society, a culture dedicated to death. If
you don't want the kid, kill it. If you don't want to live out the
rest of your God-given days, kill yourself. Or better yet, have
someone else come help you do it. I guess, no matter how horrible or
gruesome or gut-wrenching it may be, it was just a matter of time
before someone got that "killing-as-a-means-to-an-end" idea stuck in
their head for the part between birth and death as well. Everything
that happens in families and cities and states and countries is the
mirror image of the big picture. We are falling apart as a society. Am
I-some random normal teenager in Farmertown, U.S.A.-the only one who
sees that? It's sad and it's hard to believe, but what's worse is that
it's scary.
I think it's time for our--America's--Mom and Dad to ground us--to
say, "If you don't shape up by the time I count to three..." And then
really count to three. Because we are running wild and pretty soon
we're going to be too far from home to ever get back.
There was once a great saying by a famous man that has rung true
throughout the history of mankind-in every family and in every society
and in every social group and in every religion-it was a frighteningly
true statement that cannot be disputed. I am reminded of it now, in
the wake of yet another indescribably tormenting result of a nation
gone haywire...
"By their fruits you shall know them."
by Sarah Roney, April 21, 1999
Poignant words, and so true. By someone who is not supposed to be this
smart yet. I certainly wasn't that smart at the age of eighteen, and
I'm not sure I'm that smart even now, at age 61. If we had more
teenagers this smart, there would be no high school massacres. Schools
wouldn't be able to "lower the bar" to make it easier for those less
intelligent because such as Sarah Roney wouldn't allow it. With people
like Sarah in our future, there may be hope yet.
My most heartfelt thanks to "Sh�rry, aka Tapshoe" for sending this.
Original source: "W.G.E.N." [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RAY THOMA$, Moderator
>>
Message: 14
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 06:21:01 PDT
From: "Ray Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Out of the Mouths of Babes
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES
Forced Altruism List 4/25/99
Reposting permitted in complete form with the contact information at
the end intact.
Eighteen-year-old Wisconsin resident Sarah Roney wrote an essay,
inspired by the Columbine High School massacre. In it, she said what
all the pundits couldn't seem to say. Here is that essay:
FROM WHERE I STAND: A Teenager's Voice from Inside the Culture of
Death
On April 20, 1999, there was yet another gruesome shooting in
Littleton, Colorado. Kids killing kids. And again, the entire nation
in its uproar is trying to figure out why.
I am eighteen years old. I live in a small town near Madison,
Wisconsin. A small town just like the ones where these horrifying
shootings always seem to take place. Every time those stories come on
the television, I can't help but notice how easily it could be my
small town next. And I want to know why this is happening just as
badly as any parent or police chief or anchorman.
The thing is, I am right in the middle of it. I am in the same age
group as all of these high school kids. So I may have some insight for
the world that has been otherwise unattainable since these shootings
started some years ago.
The night of the Littleton shooting, as I was flipping through the
various news channels that were covering the story in Littleton,
Colorado, I heard something that struck a chord in me. An anchorman
was interviewing the mother of a victim in the Jonesboro shooting. His
question was: "If you look at America in the 1950's, you will find
that this kind of thing never happened; whereas if you look at America
today, this kind of thing is becoming more and more frequent. Why do
you think this is happening?"
The woman, of course, could not answer the question. In fact, she
didn't really even try. But I did. I thought about it for a long time
that night. And again the next morning, when my favorite morning radio
talk show asked its listeners why they thought this has been
happening. Many people said it's the parents of the kids. Many people
suggested television and video games. Many people even turned to
popular musicians, looking to put the blame somewhere.
But I will tell you what I think it is. What I, a regular teenager
riding on the coattails of Generation X, blame it on. It is not the
parents or the movies or the rock stars. It is AMERICA. It is this
culture of death, this culture in which liberals and feminists and
activists are so anxious to let anything be "OK" that the once
tightened, knotted rope of society is unraveling right beneath us.
Don't you see? There can be no order without discipline. All of those
things people think are causing children to run into a school and
shoot their teachers and peers and even kids they don't know-the
movies, the video games, the parents, the rap artists-they are only
REFLECTIONS of our society. Society breaks down, from one big
metaphoric "family" into 50 metaphoric "families" and so on and so on,
until you have the actual FAMILY, the one with the parents and the
kids and the dog. It is not one thing or two things; it is the
attitude of an entire "familiar" nation being reflected back at us in
the kids.
[Below is the part that really got to me. -RT]
Just as that anchorman suggested, something was different about the
1950's. WE WERE CONSERVATIVE. We had boundaries; we had a definite
knowledge of right and wrong throughout the entire nation. We didn't
have feminists pushing women so hard to go get a job that a woman who
didn't have a job was somehow "bad," thereby leaving kids at home with
inadequate parental guidance and often times with parents who were
truly unhappy.
We didn't have liberals fighting so avidly to legalize everything that
it was at the point of completely blurring the line between good and
bad. We didn't have a nationwide media surge dedicated to sex and
violence so intense that if you weren't playing killing video games at
age 14, then you were trying to choose between contraceptives
beforehand or abortion afterwards.
We didn't have disputes over whether or not we should help someone who
is dying die sooner-over whether or not we should ASSIST them in
committing SUICIDE. And we certainly didn't have a President who was
in favor of NATO bombing and killing children in Serbia come on the
television to grieve the loss for the families of children killed in
America.
We live in a loosely tied society, a culture dedicated to death. If
you don't want the kid, kill it. If you don't want to live out the
rest of your God-given days, kill yourself. Or better yet, have
someone else come help you do it. I guess, no matter how horrible or
gruesome or gut-wrenching it may be, it was just a matter of time
before someone got that "killing-as-a-means-to-an-end" idea stuck in
their head for the part between birth and death as well. Everything
that happens in families and cities and states and countries is the
mirror image of the big picture. We are falling apart as a society. Am
I-some random normal teenager in Farmertown, U.S.A.-the only one who
sees that? It's sad and it's hard to believe, but what's worse is that
it's scary.
I think it's time for our--America's--Mom and Dad to ground us--to
say, "If you don't shape up by the time I count to three..." And then
really count to three. Because we are running wild and pretty soon
we're going to be too far from home to ever get back.
There was once a great saying by a famous man that has rung true
throughout the history of mankind-in every family and in every society
and in every social group and in every religion-it was a frighteningly
true statement that cannot be disputed. I am reminded of it now, in
the wake of yet another indescribably tormenting result of a nation
gone haywire...
"By their fruits you shall know them."
by Sarah Roney, April 21, 1999
Poignant words, and so true. By someone who is not supposed to be this
smart yet. I certainly wasn't that smart at the age of eighteen, and
I'm not sure I'm that smart even now, at age 61. If we had more
teenagers this smart, there would be no high school massacres. Schools
wouldn't be able to "lower the bar" to make it easier for those less
intelligent because such as Sarah Roney wouldn't allow it. With people
like Sarah in our future, there may be hope yet.
My most heartfelt thanks to "Sh�rry, aka Tapshoe" for sending this.
Original source: "W.G.E.N." [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RAY THOMA$, Moderator
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