Fri, Apr 20 2007

Well-fed, but maybe also poisoned?

Sadly, the shootings at Virginia Tech have brought threats to other students, including those in Yuba City and Marysville in California. Many schools had to add extra security measures this week after copy-cat threats and pranks emerged. At least one threat in another state may have appeared on a MySpace blog, which could at least alert authorities quickly enough to take preventive action. The media has been showing the pictures of the Virginia Tech gunman's video manifesto with much pomp. I would suggest that maybe it's time to stop this. I understand that such material could help us understand and identify any potential troubled individuals in our own circle of acquaintances. We would all want to avoid any other incidents like the ones at Virginia Tech, if at all possible. But when the media show these images over and over for days on end I'm very concerned that troubled individuals and impressionable young people will see it as some sort of glorification of violence, no matter how many times some well-dressed media personality accompanies the material with comments like "tragic", "horrifying" and "disturbing".

If we eat poison for every meal we can kill our bodies. But sometimes a little poison, administered in very small doses, can dull the body to its affects. The mind often operates the same way. I would hate to think that, in their rush to cover every aspect of the sadder side of life, that news outlets inadvertently served up little doses of poison that we take up and process in frightening ways. I hope the decision-makers in the business that is the news medium will remember that as they prepare their reports to keep us informed.

posted at: 08:02 | category: /Miscellaneous | link to this entry