Rights vs. Responsibility

There's that moment of time after you awake but before you remember the tragedy of the day before. It's peaceful in its ordinariness.

Then you remember.

Throughout the night, I wake up and start to think awhile about various things in my life. Then it hits me what happened yesterday at Virginia Tech. It's so tragic, I can't remotely fathom the fear and the grief the victims' families and fellow students are going through right now.

I don't know what else to do but pray for them.

I'm scared by the trend of rampage shootings. I start to get really scared when I think of all the failures of our society.

I watched on CNN a discussion on how these tragedies can be avoided. One person was making the point that we shouldn't go crazy with worry about our children at school. They are so much more likely to get hurt riding their bike without a helmet than they are ever to get hurt at school.

The other person was painting a bigger picture. She made the point of how we, as a society, allow kids to play violent video games for hours and hours. We allow kids to listen to garbage about women and violence and call it music. We accept these things as part of todays culture when what we really need to do is take a stand against them.

It's funny to me that we make a huge issue out of seeing Janet Jackson's nipple on television yet we assume that virtual violence "played" for hours and days on end, is just a harmless way for kids to pass their time. Hey, the package has a rating. That's good enough, right? We wouldn't want children to see a breast, but virtually massacreing people and degrading women? Well now that's just good, old-fashioned entertainment.

TMS and I have been debating the Don Imus issue. One of us arguing freedom of speech, the other arguing zero tolerance.
Our debate comes down to rights vs. responsibility. Let's keep our rights in tact, but can't we be more responible in what we choose to do or say?

How can we put a stop to this trash, but not infringe on people's rights?

By being a good parent.

Be involved. Be unpopular. Be strong in your convictions of what's right. Be the lone mom or dad who says "No".

Shelter your kids from obscene music and violent video games at all costs.

It's hard to be the kid whose mom and dad don't allow movies or games or parties or whatever all the other kids' parents allow - just ask my two boys.

Sometimes you have to be the bad guy in the name of responsible parenting.