when I was a boy...back in the '40's

When I was a boy, way back in the 1940's, my parents would take us all out to the theater for a rare treat. 

"Going to the movies" caused some friction between my parents.  Mother wanted to time it so we arrived just before the feature film, watch it and leave.  Dad loved the movies and wanted to stay for everything that was offered on the screen.  In those days the theaters featured a main attraction, a newsreel of world and national events, a color cartoon, clips from coming features, an intermission with appealing commercials beckoning us to the lobby and the snack bar, and finally a second feature.  This second movie was usually what was called a B movie. 

Probably the most famous of the B actors was Ronald Reagan.  Many up and coming young actors had their careers launched via the B films, if they weren't destroyed. 

Anyway, many of these grade B movies were Shoot 'em up flicks.  Gangsters or western rustlers bullying the decent towns people, until a hero came into town and ran them off. 

But violence was handled discretely.  Brains were never splattered across the screen.  If a man had been shot, you saw his feet sticking out from behind the desk or sofa. 

It is true that women did not fare much better in the old films than they do today, being the victims of evil men.  But they were not pawed and raped in front of our very eyes. 

Violence today is so much more graphic.  And there is so much more of it.  Of course when I was a lad, we had no TV to rot our brains in front of.  So we boys had to sneak off to the news stands and gawk at copies of Police Gazette, or True Detective.  My favorite magazine to sneak a look at was Sunshine and Health.  This was a magazine put out by some nudist organization and usually featured a few long distant shots of naked women standing in a brook or walking along a path in the woods.  I really did prefer dreaming of being a lover rather than a fighter. 

This is not to suggest that there was no violent crime.  In some areas of Seattle, the beat patrol officers walked three abreast.  But crime was mostly in the slums.  And there were not the sprawling slums in those days. 

As a nine year old boy, I would take the trolley to down town Seattle and walk several blocks to the YMCA for my swimming lessons.  This meant that I always came home after dark.  And I thought nothing of it.  As a young man, I wandered the streets on weekends, dropping into some rather seedy bars in Skidrow, without ever being accosted. 

Looking back, it seems as if I were living on a different planet.  And the changes have snuck up on us.  And we accept them as being normal. 

Well, they're not!  We can turn this violent nation around if we decide that it is important. 

 

Carl Jarvis

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Miriam Vieni

To: 'Blind Democracy Discussion List'

Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2012 7:23 PM

Subject: A Culture That Condones The Killing Of Children And Teaches Children To Kill

A Culture That Condones The Killing Of Children And Teaches Children To Kill
December 14, 2012 / Lucinda / Comments Off
The Sandy Hook massacre isn't just about the need for gun control laws, it
is about a culture that condones the killing of children and teaches
children that killing is okay.
It is about a country addicted to violence on television and movie screens.
It is about cuts in education spending.
It is about giving the military free access to our schools where they regale
our children with romanticized delusions of military righteousness.
It is about environmental and health policies that expose our children to
all manner of toxins in the air, land and water.
It is about thinking we have the right to kill children with drones or by
dropping toxic munitions on their countries that cause birth defects and
miscarriages.
It is about saddling our children with crippling education debt and no
prospect for jobs.
It is about telling boys (and men) they have to be tough and to fight and
kill for what they want or think is right.
It is about a national policy that denies children basic rights and
systemically teaches them that violence is okay.
And it is about a media so insensitive that it thinks it is okay to shove a
microphone in the face of young victims in the name of sensationalized 24/7
cable "news" while under-reporting the root causes of this tragedy.
Sandy Hook did not happen because of a lone, disturbed young man and it is
not an isolated incident. It is an epidemic and we are all to blame. And
today (and tomorrow and every day after A Culture That Condones The Killing
Of Children And Teaches Children To Kill
December 14, 2012 / Lucinda / Comments Off
The Sandy Hook massacre isn't just about the need for gun control laws, it
is about a culture that condones the killing of children and teaches
children that killing is okay.
It is about a country addicted to violence on television and movie screens.
It is about cuts in education spending.
It is about giving the military free access to our schools where they regale
our children with romanticized delusions of military righteousness.
It is about environmental and health policies that expose our children to
all manner of toxins in the air, land and water.
It is about thinking we have the right to kill children with drones or by
dropping toxic munitions on their countries that cause birth defects and
miscarriages.
It is about saddling our children with crippling education debt and no
prospect for jobs.
It is about telling boys (and men) they have to be tough and to fight and
kill for what they want or think is right.
It is about a national policy that denies children basic rights and
systemically teaches them that violence is okay.
And it is about a media so insensitive that it thinks it is okay to shove a
microphone in the face of young victims in the name of sensationalized 24/7
cable "news" while under-reporting the root causes of this tragedy.
Sandy Hook did not happen because of a lone, disturbed young man and it is
not an isolated incident. It is an epidemic and we are all to blame. And
today (and tomorrow and every day after that) is the time to confront this
self-inflicted tragedy.
that) is the time to confront this self-inflicted tragedy.

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