What happened to PARENTING?!
Monday, April 11, 2005
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I have read several articles recently about a bill going through and getting passed in the house "preventing teens from buying violent or sexually explicit games". If you just leave it at that, then it sounds wonderful, right? How about NO! What is really happening is the so-called "hands-off" republican and conservative base looking for more brownie points during their politcal career. There used to be a time when these types of things were left to the discretion and responsibility of parents.
What are parents you ask? One of the definitions at Answers.com says that a parent is a protector or a gaurdian. However, there are several other definitions, and perhaps this is where the problem with the local and federal governments lies. The rest of the definitions leave it as vague as stating that a parent is one who births another. Hell, any man who walks into a sperm bank is a parent then, right? Maybe I am the conservative in this arena, because I always thought a parent was the person responsible for a child - a guardian.
It seems that although our elected politicians will not come out and say it, we are obviously not responsible enough to raise our own kids. This is the message that these legislators are sending to the American public. Our conservative portions of the nation are so blind in their own agendas of just fighting against the so-called liberal movement that they will do anything to win a "battle" against them. In the meantime we suffer through such tragedies as the Patriot Act, and this newest bill because people are too lazy to open their mouths when it REALLY counts.
You are quick to announce when you get a raise or have a vacation, but when your rights are being strategically narrowed at every local and federal government session, you just sit there and twiddle your thumbs, why? It is not like you do not have access to the information. You must stand up and voice your concerns. Even if you are not a parent yet, you need to say something now because you may be one day.
The ESRB is releasing a new rating which will reside between the Everyone and Teen rating, Teen 10+. It is designed to designate that the game is not for any children younger than 10 years old. This is to eliminate games that have content like super heroes fighting and race cars crashing. What is next? Cartoon chracters playing pranks are innappropriate? How many of you looked up to Superman and Spider-Man when they would engage in a heated battle with their nemesis and eventually win because they are on the side of good, not evil? Did you turn out so bad? (Hopefully, you are not reading from a prison library!)
Some of the most violent content on television for many years was the good old Warner Brothers cartoons. What's more violent, a boulder being thrown onto Whilee Coyote for no particular reason other than to showcase it as humor, or a super hero throwing a couple jabs and saving a city? I am by no means saying that the Warner Brothers cartoons are bad, evil, or otherwise unwise for our youth to see. What I am saying it that this really needs to be put into perspective.
It seems to me that the parents who are getting behind this really have a screw loose, or they are simply too lazy to monitor their own children. They are so lazy that they are willing to let a polictician who is so disconnected from reality that they believe that these games are encouraging violent behavior in children decide what is best for their own children.
Let me clue you in on something. The problem with violence in youngsters is not that there is a cartoon using the word "fire", or that video game had a couple fights in it. The violence in children is from them being raised by outside sources. Your average family will sit a child in front of a computer or television and tell them to be quiet, when they should actually be reading to them, going over homework, or participating in any other number of family activities. Parents are not listening to their children or giving them the attention that they not only deserve, but that they also REQUIRE in order to grow into a well-rounded and responsibile citizen in our society.
These children will one day make decisions that will forever govern our way of life, and todays parents are throwing their future into the hands of politicians blindly. Shame on everyone who does not know the facts and are backing this movement.
What are parents you ask? One of the definitions at Answers.com says that a parent is a protector or a gaurdian. However, there are several other definitions, and perhaps this is where the problem with the local and federal governments lies. The rest of the definitions leave it as vague as stating that a parent is one who births another. Hell, any man who walks into a sperm bank is a parent then, right? Maybe I am the conservative in this arena, because I always thought a parent was the person responsible for a child - a guardian.
It seems that although our elected politicians will not come out and say it, we are obviously not responsible enough to raise our own kids. This is the message that these legislators are sending to the American public. Our conservative portions of the nation are so blind in their own agendas of just fighting against the so-called liberal movement that they will do anything to win a "battle" against them. In the meantime we suffer through such tragedies as the Patriot Act, and this newest bill because people are too lazy to open their mouths when it REALLY counts.
You are quick to announce when you get a raise or have a vacation, but when your rights are being strategically narrowed at every local and federal government session, you just sit there and twiddle your thumbs, why? It is not like you do not have access to the information. You must stand up and voice your concerns. Even if you are not a parent yet, you need to say something now because you may be one day.
The ESRB is releasing a new rating which will reside between the Everyone and Teen rating, Teen 10+. It is designed to designate that the game is not for any children younger than 10 years old. This is to eliminate games that have content like super heroes fighting and race cars crashing. What is next? Cartoon chracters playing pranks are innappropriate? How many of you looked up to Superman and Spider-Man when they would engage in a heated battle with their nemesis and eventually win because they are on the side of good, not evil? Did you turn out so bad? (Hopefully, you are not reading from a prison library!)
Some of the most violent content on television for many years was the good old Warner Brothers cartoons. What's more violent, a boulder being thrown onto Whilee Coyote for no particular reason other than to showcase it as humor, or a super hero throwing a couple jabs and saving a city? I am by no means saying that the Warner Brothers cartoons are bad, evil, or otherwise unwise for our youth to see. What I am saying it that this really needs to be put into perspective.
It seems to me that the parents who are getting behind this really have a screw loose, or they are simply too lazy to monitor their own children. They are so lazy that they are willing to let a polictician who is so disconnected from reality that they believe that these games are encouraging violent behavior in children decide what is best for their own children.
Let me clue you in on something. The problem with violence in youngsters is not that there is a cartoon using the word "fire", or that video game had a couple fights in it. The violence in children is from them being raised by outside sources. Your average family will sit a child in front of a computer or television and tell them to be quiet, when they should actually be reading to them, going over homework, or participating in any other number of family activities. Parents are not listening to their children or giving them the attention that they not only deserve, but that they also REQUIRE in order to grow into a well-rounded and responsibile citizen in our society.
These children will one day make decisions that will forever govern our way of life, and todays parents are throwing their future into the hands of politicians blindly. Shame on everyone who does not know the facts and are backing this movement.
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