Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Sphar who wrote (10642)	5/22/1998 11:17:00 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

Hey, this is great. I disagree with everyone!!! Well-it isn't that I disagree. It's that I think you're both trying to put Neosporin on various cancerous lesions while the cancer rages unchecked in the bloodstream. Take the guns away? The despair, hatred, lack of hope, will find another outlet. Demand Hollywood have a conscience? What then explains why the majority of children grow up with Wily Coyote and Terminator and have no problem with antisocial behavior (And I cite Ammo as a perfect example despite his suggestive nickname)? I think Christine is closer to the truth with her mention of dysfunctional families but they, too, are the result of some deeper disease and I don't believe that pouring more money into the social programs as they now exist is the answer either. Parents, both rich and poor, seem to have lost sight of the fact that children demand total commitment and often the subjugation of the parents' personal desires---whether it is for the 500,000 home and BMW or for drugs and some relief from the poverty that surrounds them. Children need models and guidance and morals and hope. And these have to be taught at home. I hate to sound as if I'm a member of the Christian Coalition-(God forbid-heehee) but our society seems to have fallen into some hopeless, despairing pit without personal morality or decency, self-control or generosity. Misuse of guns, violent movies, drugs, and Bill Clinton are only the visible exudations of our malaise.

To: Michael Sphar who wrote (10642)	5/22/1998 12:21:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

Michael, I don't believe violence in the popular culture is a very significant root cause of what is going on with the child massacres. There are other cultures--Japan comes to mind immediately--with even more violence in the media than we have. A major difference between the two societies is that the Japanese are not armed to the teeth! While the level of violence we expose our children to is definitely a symptom that as a society we are spinning out of control, the fact is that children who are emotionally healthy and FIRMLY ATTACHED to their parents are not blowing away their classmates. As I read my morning paper I discovered something that was absolutely no surprise to me--Kipling Kinkel was an avid hunter who had publicly mused about how it would feel to kill another human, is described by his classmates as having a very short fuse, and (most importantly) was known to TORTURE ANIMALS. This, and a propensity for starting fires, are the two primary markers for children who kill. And even though my initial understanding is that his parents were teachers, who should have known better because they study child development in college, it doesn't seem like he was in treatment for obvious, serious emotional problems. Because he killed both of them, and because seriously abused children are more typically animal torturers, I would almost bet that they were less than ideal, nurturing parents. Children simply mirror in their behavior the way they were treated, for the most part. I was really chilled last night when a news reporter was talking to the principal of the school Kipling attended. The reporter asked why he had not had immediate counseling after being expelled the day before for bringing a weapon to school. The principal replied that there had been a lot of budget cuts, and that they had decided to prioritize computers instead of other programs like counseling. The governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber, lashed out at government spending priorities that emphasize building new prisons over youth crime prevention: "I think we need to ask ourselves, what kind of despair drives children to this kind of violence, what kind of lack of hope or sense of abandonment . . . drives them to make this kind of terrible choice." As I have said many time, this is a nation absolutely crazy with weapons and violence, which does not prioritize children. Now we are starting to pay the price. This is only going to get worse, not better, and is the primary reason I believe that America is a society in serious and rapid decline. Sorry, Penni, if this is too grim for Rambi. It would be fine with me to continue it at Feelings, instead, if you prefer.

To: Michael Sphar who wrote (10642)	5/22/1998 12:59:00 PM
From: Lady Lurksalot	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

Mike, I would add to what you have written that the names of the juveniles who commit these mindless killings should not be published, nor should they be given glossy cover spreads, complete with pictures, on pulp media publications, such as People, Newsweek, etc. This publicity glamorizes and romanticizes such crimes and appeals to would-be copycats. Knives have been used in several recent killings which were singularly gruesome and vicious. The stabbing murders of a family In Chino Hills comes to mind, as does the stabbing murder of the teen-aged cheerleader by another teen-ager in Contra Costa County. I do not hear the masses crying for a ban on knives. BTW, the teen-aged murderess mentioned above is now out and among us. The "experts" say she's been "rehabilitated." Holly