There are three lines of thought in the debate…
The gun debate is way too impassioned for me to comment on—no one will convince antigun people that those who want to kill will find ways to do so with or without guns…nor will anyone convince gun supporters that while guns may not be the root of the problem, they may exacerbate it. I’m confident that the government will eventually legislate some change in law that will make some kind of difference…but it won’t fix the problem entirely.
Pharmaceuticals are definitely a smoking gun (yes, pun intended!), but the real story won’t get told because drug companies use campaign donations and lobbying—$2.3 billion in the last decade to enforce their stranglehold on the government. Drug companies also use their advertising dollars to control the media. Drug companies spent more than $5.6 billion on advertising in 2016…and drug ads made up the fourth-largest category of advertising spending in the first quarter of 2017.
Don’t believe me? Let me help you connect the dots. The website WND.com posted an eye-opening article last week with a detailed list of recent shooters and their drug usage. I concede that this list was put together by a very conservative website, but the manic and suicidal side effects of some pharmaceuticals are very real. I would have loved to have had a mainstream media source on this—but the media isn’t talking. What a shock!
To me, guns and drugs are both serious symptoms of the problem—but not the root cause. While social media wants to debate guns and drugs, I am focused on the breakdown of our social mores, our environment and the messages our children are receiving. Those are the only things that every one of us can change today…on our own…without government intervention or bureaucratic changes.
Look at what we now celebrate and what we don’t respect. We are fast becoming a society of hedonistic, self-indulgent individuals who don’t have the emotional strength to persevere and who have lost the moral center to provide strength and guidance. Our children and young adults are returning to our homes to live after not making it on their own in “adultland,” and we parents have trained them to believe that we will fight their battles when they don’t get the grade they wanted, the playing time on the field they think they deserve or the promotion they think they have earned at work! Because of all of our “helpful” parenting, I believe our children are more stressed and anxious than ever before.
One of the older generation’s critical responsibilities in a strong society is to provide guidance about morality and tradition to the younger generations. Yet here is a sampling of what is being offered to the young and being celebrated across society…
The Grammy Award–winning rap song of the year for 2017 is “Humble” by Kendrick Lamar. Here are just some of the lyrics. Appalling doesn’t begin to express the vulgarity of the language and messaging. (Warning: There are all sorts of words in this that should not be published, but I am including them to demonstrate what is being celebrated in our culture today)…
“…Who dat nigga thinkin’ that he frontin’ on man, man? (Man, man)
Get the fuck off my stage, I’m the Sandman (Sandman)
Get the fuck off my dick, that ain’t right
I make a play fuckin’ up your whole life
I’m so fuckin’ sick and tired of the Photoshop
Show me somethin’ natural like afro on Richard Pryor
Show me somethin’ natural like ass with some stretchmarks
Still will take you down right on your mama’s couch in Polo socks, ay
This shit way too crazy, ay, you do not amaze me, ay
I blew cool from AC, ay, Obama just paged me, ay
I don’t fabricate it, ay, most of y’all be fakin’, ay
I stay modest ’bout it, ay, she elaborate it, ay
This that Grey Poupon, that Evian, that TED Talk, ay
Watch my soul speak, you let the meds talk, ay
If I kill a nigga, it won’t be the alcohol, ay
I’m the realest nigga after all, bitch, be humble sit down
(Hol’ up lil’ bitch, hol’ up lil’ bitch) be humble
(Hol’ up, bitch) sit down
(Sit down, hol’ up, lil’ bitch)
Be humble (bitch)…”
Lest you think I am coming down only on rappers, here is the first verse for Bruno Mars’s “That’s What I Like,” which won the 2017 Grammy for Song of the Year…
“Hey, hey, hey
I got a condo in Manhattan
Baby girl, what’s hatnin’?
You and your ass invited
So gon’ and get to clappin’
Go pop it for a player
Pop, pop it for me
Turn around and drop it for a player,
drop, drop it for me…”
Yes, these lyrics are far tamer than Lamar Kendrick’s, but in the land of #metoo, is this really the way we want women to be addressed?
The best-selling video game in 2017 was Call of Duty WW11 given a rating of M for mature due to its “blood and gore, intense violence and strong language” by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
Sunday Night Football was the highest-rated TV show in 2017, and that would be great except that there was controversy about athletes kneeling during our national anthem. What did that teach our youth? To disrespect our national anthem and our flag. Why? Because there was never a clear singular message from the NFL or the players about why these athletes were kneeling. Their message was lost. The only thing people remember is what they saw—our sports heroes taking a knee instead of honoring our country.
Popular TV series celebrate lying, cheating, marital affairs and more. Shameless “celebrates” the life of an alcoholic father with six children who must fend for themselves in the midst of their father’s tragic antics. Breaking Bad glorifies a meth lab. Reality TV exalts the Kardashians’ never-ending soap opera with their fairytale shopping, extramarital affairs and assorted drug issues. And hitting a new low is the recently launched Netflix reality series Push. It asks the question, Can someone be manipulated into committing murder due to obedience and social compliance? On what planet does someone think that this is going to be a positive addition to our society?
Our use of screens as a replacement for real life is dulling our humanity. A University of Michigan study found a 40% reduction in empathy in college students since 2000, and a UCLA study had to get people off their screens in order to demonstrate that a lack of screens increased empathy.
The loss of empathy and the celebration of social-destructive and self-destructive behavior are frightening to me, as they should be to you. There is a disgusting trend in our culture toward evil and violence with no shame and no guilt. Lamar Kendrick’s lyrics are not unique. We celebrate criminals—TV movies about the Menendez brothers and OJ Simpson.
Here are just some of the headlines that were featured on news sites as I was writing this blog last night…
Bodies of twin babies found inside suitcase in Arkansas ditch (FoxNews.com)
Texas girl, 17, arrested in staged gunpoint carjacking of her friend (FoxNews.com)
NYC cab driver beaten over $18 fare as bystanders watched (FoxNews.com)
Top Gymnasts Won’t Participate in Olympic Committee’s Sexual Abuse Investigation—saying they don’t trust the body to conduct a thorough and independent investigation (WSJ.com)
7-year-old boy killed in crossfire, 5th child shot in Jacksonville in 2 weeks (ABCNews.com)
Police: Atlanta man dead after dispute with UberEATS driver (ABCNews.go.com)
School shootings are horrible. But the problem is so much deeper and wider. We all make choices every day, and change will come with each of our choices.
We need to teach our younger generation the basics of personal responsibility, self-respect and self-reliance. We need to help them stand on their own two feet in good times and challenging times. We need to help them deal with the emotional challenges of our complicated world where sometimes the answer is “no” and where winning takes hard work and perseverance. We need to say please and thank you and I love you to one another. We need to remember the most very basic of life’s rules: Do to others as you would have them do to you.
We are all teachers and counselors. We are all role models for others in some way or another. Whether they realize it or not, our younger generations look to oldsters for wisdom and guidance, and we are role models with our every action and word.
If we want a country that feels good and does good, then we have to create it…one simple choice at a time.
