
 |
|
Nov. 25, 2009
JWisdom.com: No God … No You!
Know God, Know You! with Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (8 minutes)
Nov. 24, 2009
JWisdom.com: You are a Philanthropist
with Aliza Bulow (5 minutes)
Nov. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com: Actually, it really is all about you with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff
Nov. 20, 2009
Nov. 19, 2009
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf
with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith
with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Nov. 12, 2009
JWisdom.com Does God get tired?
with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven
with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Oct. 12, 2006
/ 20 Tishrei, 5767
School daze
By
Cal Thomas
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
On the day Lee Boyd Malvo, one of the two "Beltway snipers," pleaded guilty to six shootings in Maryland in 2002, President Bush headlined a summit on school violence in Chevy Chase, Md., not far from the scene of one of the attacks.
School violence and street violence are part of the same picture. When I was in school, safety focused on traffic (I was a member of the safety patrol), not injuring yourself in shop class and making sure "spotters" ringed the trampoline so no one got hurt. The one student who got in trouble with the law for stabbing another student off campus was ostracized. That kind of behavior was not to be tolerated by either adults or my classmates.
While certain inner-city schools in New York were "blackboard jungles," to recall a Glenn Ford-Sidney Poitier film from that era, most parents and students viewed their schools as safe. Then, metal detectors were devices you took to the beach to locate coins and drugs were obtained at a pharmacy with a legal prescription from a doctor. We mostly lied about sex and the few we knew were having it wore taps on their shoes, had their hair styled a certain way and if they were girls, took typing instead of Latin.
The school summit consisted mostly of bromides. No one has a real "solution" to the disturbed who bring guns to school and slaughter children. There was talk of better student-parent-teacher communication, but short of turning schools into detainee centers, there are no guarantees that even under the best of circumstances more shootings won't occur.
The real problem lies outside of school and in the human heart and wider culture. Kids see violence celebrated throughout the world. Fanatics blow themselves and others up on orders from their god and in pursuit of a twisted view of heaven on earth. The news is filled with stories about missing and abused women, most of whom suffer a violent death. Entertainment programs are drenched in blood and gore. Gunfights are sometimes in slow motion so that the viewer can watch a bullet entering and exiting a human body, destroying tissue and splattering blood. While most who watch do not copy such behavior, some sick people do.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 16,000 people were murdered in the United States in 2004 (the latest year for which statistics are available). Murder rates in 1950 and 1960 were half those in the 1980s and '90s before declining slightly in subsequent years.
We read and hear about kids being shot and killed for a leather jacket or a pair of high-priced sneakers. Why has human life become so cheap and why has moral conduct eroded to the point that many commit murder without a second thought?
| BUY THE BOOK |
| Click HERE
to purchase it at a discount.
|
|
Sociologists and culture critics have spent years studying this question and have produced mountains of paperwork analyzing violence and its causes. They have also proposed solutions, none of which appear to be working to stem school shootings.
Elizabeth Thoman, founder of the Center for Media Literacy, contributes one answer. She writes, defensively at first, "For years, like other communicators, I believed that tolerating some things I didn't like, including depictions of violence, was the price we paid for a free and open public discourse. … The issue, I believe, is no longer one of protecting free speech, but protecting human life; it is not a question of censoring ideas but of changing behaviors that are endangering the health and safety of every citizen, young and old."
The media won't change and government isn't about to make them change, other than imposing fines for broadcasting certain vulgar words. So the task falls upon the parents. Get rid of the TV, or at least prohibit children from watching violent shows. Don't allow violent and crude music in your home. Don't divorce, which causes children to feel abandoned and become angry. Stop aborting babies, because if human life is seen as cheap and disposable at its early stages, we lose a moral argument for preserving it at later stages.
Talking about school violence is not a bad thing. Doing the tough things that will reduce it is better. Abandoning the notion that parents should be "friends" with their children would help, along with the investment of quantity time in their lives. But that would require major changes in many households that now put building wealth ahead of building character.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Cal Thomas is the author of, among others, The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas Comment by clicking here.
Cal Thomas Archives
© 2006, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Lewis Grossberger
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Jim Mullen
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Ed Stein
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Every Monday Matters
Nutrition Myths
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|