After Littleton, Right and Left Need New Views
By Morton M. Kondracke
ABC's "Good Morning America" team is as good as there is on television, but
two segments last Thursday illustrated what's missing in many responses to the
Littleton, Colo., school massacre.
First, Diane Sawyer interviewed Esther Green, who heroically survived a
carjacking with her baby in Fayetteville, Ga., by secretly calling 911 on her cell
phone and directing a dispatcher while pretending to talk to her kidnappers.
The interview was fine, with one exception. In nearly every sentence recounting
her ordeal, attributed courage to "the grace of God" and her survival as the
result of "the goodness of God."
"I have learned," she said, "that with God I can have the strength of eagles, that
I can fly." And when she and her baby were safe, "the first thing I did was
thank and praise God."
There was an obvious opportunity here to inquire about the power of religious
faith, but Sawyer acted as though she either didn't hear the word "God" or,
more likely, found Green's devoutness too difficult to handle.
What's that got to do with Littleton? For one thing, deep religious faith clearly
is the antithesis of the "dark side" that killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
lived. They even shot born-again Christian Cassie Bernall after she affirmed her
belief in God.
Sawyer's failure to follow up on the subject -- admittedly, it came up in a
separate context -- was a small example of the inability of opinion leaders to step
beyond their comfort zones and preconceptions, which is an absolute necessity
if the problem of youth violence is to be solved.
As conservative commentator William Kristol has observed, Littleton can be as
culturally decisive an event as the Oklahoma City bombing, which substantially
put an end to "angry-white-male chic" in the mid-1990s.
But cultural renewal can happen only if people are willing to think afresh about
what to do. Unfortunately, with some exceptions, most commentators are
nurturing their intellectual prejudices over Littleton, not transcending them.
The immediate reaction of most liberals was to call for gun control.
Conservatives instantly blamed "the culture," especially Hollywood, and
preemptively denounced "knee-jerk" gun control proposals.
Right after the Green segment, the "Good Morning America" folks illustrated
the syndrome. Co-host Charles Gibson observed that the White House might
take up Sen. Joe Lieberman's (D-Conn.) call for a summit meeting of
entertainment executives to discuss youth violence.
"I get uncomfortable with this," he said, "because ... is the government going to
be cracking down on the entertainment industry in some way? You get into
First Amendment questions."
News-reader Antonio Mora added: "I think that sometimes the media gets too
much blame for what clearly were disturbed children."
Littleton could be a transforming event in America if media people started
looking at their responsibilities, liberals put moral pressure on their Hollywood
friends, secularists reconsidered religion in schools and conservatives opened
their minds to the possibility that guns could be less available.
The person who normally should lead a national dialogue is President Clinton,
but his first major response to Littleton was to propose new gun laws. They are
certainly called for -- it ought to be impossible for minors to acquire assault
rifles -- but distrust of Clinton likely will sink his proposals.
One person who shows some tendency to break the ideological mold is Vice
President Al Gore, who said in an MSNBC town meeting, "I think we need
changes in a variety of places, not only in government, but in families.
"All adults need to be more involved in the lives of children. ... We need
mentors and support networks. We also need to restrict the availability of guns.
We need to put pressure on the entertainment industry to tone down the levels
of explicit violence. We need more discipline in schools and more character
education."
Gore endorsed the idea of Lieberman and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for an
entertainment summit and consumer boycotts of sponsors of violent and
explicit TV shows. But the Vice President couldn't bring himself to accept
another proposal advanced on the show.
When Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, suggested that
having more armed adults in schools -- say, assistant principals trained with
guns -- could stop student assaults, Gore dismissed the idea as "highly
irresponsible."
Really? Pratt didn't suggest that students tote weapons to protect themselves,
but pointed out that other school rampages have been stopped by armed
officials.
Gore, while closed to some ideas, seems open to many others. He was moved,
he said, by a parent in Littleton who whispered to him, "'These children cannot
have died in vain. We have to make changes. Promise me we will make changes.
Promise me.'" Naturally, Gore said, he promised.
To fulfill the promise, cultural groups all need to reform themselves -- not blame
the usual suspects. |
