Mood:
incredulousAn Open Letter to the Globe and Mail newspaper
RE: school shootings at Dawson College in Montreal
Dear Editor(s),
After the dust settles, when the initial shock wears thin, even amidst
all the other scurry of questions that seemingly beg to be answered in
regards to the Dawson school shootings
such as is there a finger to point at inept governments past and present
on gun control, or, how did the shooter get his hands on so many
guns...it doesnt take too many leaps in the imagination
when trying to move past confoundation and skirting damnation in an
attempt to understand the events themselves in the context we live of a
brave new world replete with cell phones and email and camera phones and
Blackberrys. To arrive at the conclusion that we are dealing with a
person ill fated and ill equipped to live in a world
already saturated with both real life violence on the news and the
virtual: be it through video games or tv and the movies.
Perhaps this might be an event for ourselves to consider ways of
engaging our own rationality after the shock has worn off, after our
sympathies set in and we collect ourselves to work in our work day with
that casual wary eye towards youth again and all the rebellious methods
and uses they come up with via extensions like the iNternet to
display,tout and create their individualties that seperate them from the
real world of madness we adults have created.
I had noted in the break from the gate in capturing this story and all
its vagaries, one of the writers for the Globe and Mail instantly
delineated the idea for calling this event 9/13. And why not? There
could not actually be a better idea to display a way to recongnize our
own emotions and sadness than by sharing with our cousins and brothers
to the South that children of a common Mother we may be, but we are not
above or below recognizing the sanctity of human life, despite if the
twin towers destruction diminutizes a school shooting, it doesnt dimish
the real shock, the pain or the sadness. Commemorating an event may be
one of the first and best ways to deal with a tragic event for a healing
path to develop and by that, long term solutions may flourish.
Given that writers like Robert Bly, Neal Postman and Jerry Manders have
been trying to open eyes and ears for years on the negatory effects of
tv and video game violence and desensitization, perhaps in a bid to end
this vicious cycle, rather than continue to feel these negative effects,
society as a whole can hit back with an answer not as drastic as it may
be rational, and that is something to do with along the lines of early or later
childhood media education. And incorporate these into classrooms and
curriculum at some some point where we prepare kids for the 'real world'.
With many schools using television as an instructional and learning aid,
the shock and grief we feel should not usurp its potential to turnon itself
to create real world solutions. In tandem with other efforts.
With the world progressing technologically at this breakneck speed,
answers from parents and adults as to why 9/11 occured (a thouroughly
traumatizing event for parents teens and children alike...a lot of which
we may never fully know or realize) a mixture of the overly simplistic and
sweetly sacharrine..
..it might be time to look past laws
and reform and come full circle around to examine the lofty role media
plays in our society both for good and for bad.
Or at least show some temerity in the face of injustices the victims
familes now have to endure
by way of swirling questions that may now never be answered thanks to
the killers ultimate act of self-negation and cowardice of killing
himself. Maybe the media would like to play an
extended and protracted role by taking larger steps than it has in the
past.
Yours sincerely,
A Globe and Mail reader from British Columbia
Posted by mach1231
at 11:04 AM PDT
Updated: Friday, September 15, 2006 11:25 AM PDT
