In the weeks after the

Columbine shooting, we have been shown the same repeated

scenes on news broadcasts. We all watched through the

prying lenses of news networks as the bloodied teenagers

climbing out of the school through broken windows, as the

families of victims mourned, and we even got to go inside

the funerals of the victims and watch worldwide as

families grieved. We sit in our living rooms, watching

and listening to the graphic details of that day and

think to ourselves, "Damn society for being so

obsessed with violence."

This kind of violence has

exists all over America. A drive-by shooting in a black

area of Los Angeles kills four children, but for some

reason, it is hardly mentioned on the news. We have

ignored the problem of violence for so long because it

has been easy to ignore. It has existed in the projects

and the ghettos of America. Yet now it has reached white

middle-class America, and the alarm bells start ringing.

Before it was because of drugs or gangs, but we really

didn't care too much, did we?

But now that it has reached

us, what do we do? Who do we blame?

Marilyn Manson isn't to

blame. The Internet isn't to blame. Hollywood isn't to

blame. And as much as I hate to say it, Rush Limbaugh

isn't to blame.

There are two sides that

each are at fault and each deserve "blame."

The first is, of course,

Eric and Dylan, two children who allowed themselves to be

turned into monsters. Yet they need no blame, as I am

sure their punishment is just. We cannot blame the

entertainment industry because it is a variable. Children

in Japan, in the United Kingdom, and even in Canada, view

and listen to the same media that our children do, but

for some reason lack the problem of adolescent

terrorists.

Who is the second, you ask?

Who else can we point our little fingers at? Ourselves.

We sit in front of the

television, watching "World's Worst

--- Caught on Tape"; we watch wars

happen a world away; we watch as CNN brings us up close

and personal with everything violent we can get our hands

on. And as we feed ourselves with violence, we dare to

ask why the media is so over ridden with it. We dare to

blame Marilyn Manson; we even dare to promote censorship

for the very material we all quietly lust after -

violence.

Violence is an American

tradition and obsession, and anyone who claims to be

outside of this box is fooling themselves. Until we stop

this obsession, American kids will continue to join the

ruthless cycle of violence.

Chris Armstrong

[email protected]

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