Word From A Mother

I firmly believe that if you want to know more about a culture, you must look at its media. If that is true, then you and I, my fellow Americans, are royally screwed. I won’t even go into talk radio, which treats the average American like they are on mental life support – everything must be chewed and predigested before we can accept it. NO, I am casting my eye on television, and what the network executives call entertainment.
First, let’s start with the soap operas. Yes, the mom’s mental vacation. The viewer’s opportunity to tell his/her cranium “Take a rest. I’ll pick you up in an hour.” They used to call this “love in the afternoon” and one of the biggies used to be “All My Children.” However, there is no longer love in the afternoon – try violence. Recently we have seen a man abuse his girlfriend, a violent murder (man bludgeoned over a head by a shovel), a man shooting his brother in the chest – and that was just for fun! How about the hero of the program, who was last seen cocking a fist at his pregnant wife. But don’t you all worry about the morality of the show – the lesbian character left! It has gotten so bad that one of the major plotlines now involves asexual reproduction. Well, that may not be too bad, but I am waiting for someone to use the turkey baster to impale someone. Then again, maybe I should be thankful, since the last pregnancies involving intercourse were a rape and a “whose the daddy?” from hell. If THIS is what mom is watching, no wonder she is out buying Junior “Grand Theft Auto”. Her soaps are making his games look like Briar Rabbit in the Bunny Patch.
What is really alarming me is the mental effect the reality shows are having, especially the ones involving calling in and voting. The same person who sat back and lost their rights in the Patriot Act will try to sneak in two votes in “Dancing With the Stars” for Kelly Monaco. We have boys dying in Iraq, but Carrie Underwood got that recording contract so I guess all is right in the world. They are taking away our ability to control our own destinies, and are supplementing them with “bread and circuses”, AND WE ARE ALLOWING IT. Why? Because it is easier to sit there and watch Evander Holyfield try to mambo then realize that something is seriously wrong here that even Simon Cowel cannot cure. When will this end? When we all use Donald Trump’s immortal words from “The Apprentice” to the current administration and the Republican majority – YOU’RE FIRED!