[nukkad] A TEENAGER’S VIEW OF WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA

[adheer <>]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Every man is the son of his own works. -Miguel de Cervantes, 
novelist (1547-1616)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

THIS IS AN ACTUAL LETTER WRITTEN BY AN 18 YR OLD
STUDENT FOLLOWING THE KILLINGS AT COLUMBINE HIGH
SCHOOL IN APRIL 1999.   

A TEENAGER’S VIEW OF WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA

(A letter written by an 18 yr. old student regarding
the recent school killings)

 

On April 20, 1999 there was yet another gruesome
shooting in Littleton, Colorado.  Kids killing kids. 
And again, the entire nation in its uproar is trying
to figure out why.  I am eighteen years old.  I live
in a small town near Madison, Wisconsin.  A small town
just like the ones where these horrifying shootings
always seem to take place.  Every time those stories
come on the television, I can’t help but notice how
easily it could be my small town next.  And I want to
know why this is happening just as badly as any parent
or police chief or anchorman.

 

The thing is, I am right in the middle of it.  I am in
the same age group as all of these high school kids. 
So I may have some insight for the world that has been
otherwise unattainable since these shootings started
some years ago.

 

The night of the Littleton shooting, as I was flipping
through the various news channels that were covering
the story in Littleton, Colorado, I heard something
that struck a chord in me.  An anchorman was
interviewing the mother of a victim in the Jonesboro
shooting.  His question was; “If you look at America
in the 1950’s, you will find that this kind of thing
never happened.  Whereas if you look at America today,
this kind of thing is becoming more and more frequent.
  Why do you think this is happening?”

 

The woman, of course, could not answer the question. 
In fact, she didn’t really even try.  But I did.  I
thought about it for a long time that night.  And
again the next morning, when my favorite morning talk
show asked its listeners why they thought this has
been happening.  Many people said it’s the parents of
the kids.  Many people suggested television and video
games.  Many people even turned to popular musicians,
looking to put the blame somewhere.

 

But I will tell you what I think it is.  What I, a
regular teenager riding on the coattails of Generation
X, blame it on.  It is not the parents, or the movies
or the rock stars.  It is AMERICA.  It is this culture
of death.  This culture in which liberals and
feminists and activists are so anxious to let anything
be “OK”.  That the once tightened, knotted rope of
society is unraveling right beneath us.

 

Don’t you see?  There can be no order without
discipline.  All of those things people think are
causing children to run into a school and shoot their
teachers and peers and even kids they don’t know, the
movies he video games, the parents, the rap artists-
they are only REFLECTIONS of our society.  Society
breaks down, from one big metaphoric “family” into 50
metaphoric “families” and so on and so on, until you
have the actual “FAMILY”, the one with the parents and
the kids and the dog.  It is not one thing or two
things; it is the attitude of an entire “familiar”
nation being reflected back at us in the kids.

 

Just as that anchorman suggested, something was
different about the 1950’s.  WE WERE CONSERVATIVE.  We
had boundaries.  We had a definite knowledge of right
and wrong throughout the nation.  We didn’t have
liberals fighting so avidly to legalize everything
that it was at the point of completely blurring the
line between bad and good.  We didn’t have a
nationwide media surge dedicated to sex and violence
so intense that if you weren’t playing killing video
games at age 14, then you were trying to choose
between contraceptives beforehand or abortion
afterwards.  We didn’t have disputes over whether or
not we should help someone who is trying to die
sooner- over whether or not we should ASSIST them in
committing SUICIDE.

 

And we certainly didn’t have a President who was in
favor of NATO bombing and killing children in Serbia
come on the television to grieve the loss for the
families of children killed in America.  We live in a
loosely tied society; a culture dedicated to death. 
If you don’t want the kid, kill it.  If you don’t want
to live out the rest of your God given days, kill
yourself.  Or better yet, have someone else come help
you do it.  I guess no matter how horrible or gruesome
or gut-wrenching it may be, it was just a matter of
time before someone got that
“killing-as-a-means-to-an-end” idea stuck in their
head for the part between birth and death as well. 
Everything that happens in families and cities and
states and countries is the mirror image of the big
picture.

 

We are falling apart as a society.  Am I some random
normal teenager in Farmertown USA-the only one to see
that?  It’s sad and it’s hard to believe, but what’s
worse is that it’s scary.

 

I think it’s time for our America’s Mom and Dad to
ground us-to say, “If you don’t shape up by the time I
count to three..”  “And then really count to three. 
Because we are running wild and pretty soon we’re
going to be too far from home to ever get back.

 

There was once a great saying by a famous man that has
rung true throughout the history of mankind in every
family and in every society and in every social group
and in every religion- it was a frighteningly true
statement that cannot be disputed.  I am reminded of
it now, in the wake of yet another indescribably
tormenting result of a nation gone haywire.

“By their fruits you shall know them.”

 

Sarah Roney

April 21, 1999
 




__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To join/leave, use the form at: http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/#options
This list is archived at: http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/archive.html