On Haiti

My fellow Americans,

You should be ashamed of yourselves. Many of you are complaining about the efforts of your countrymen to help Haiti through this disaster, saying that we should not help others because we have problems within our own borders that need to be addressed. You disgust me. I agree, we do have problems, huge ones. Our poverty rate is unacceptable. The conditions in which many of our elderly live are unacceptable. The sheer number of homeless wandering the streets is devastating. We have small children that go to school starving, and come home to a meager supper that probably couldn’t even sustain a household pet. And so, you say, before we help this earthquake torn country, we should take care of our own.

Let me ask you, what the fuck are you doing to solve these problems? Are you willing to donate your valuable time, energy, and resources to help those around you who are suffering, or are you content to look past them as though they don’t exist? Every time you avert your eyes from a homeless man in filthy rags on the street begging for your change, you are affirming your cowardice. I understand you don’t want to give him your change because “he’s only going to buy booze with it”. Who the fuck are you to say that? And if that is how you feel, what’s stopping you from going to the nearest convenience store or fast food place and getting the poor man a cheap meal? Is five dollars and ten minutes of your time really so precious to you? You say you have nothing, that you can’t afford it. Bullshit. Say that when you’re buying your cigarettes, your alcohol, your lottery tickets and lattes you HYPOCRIT.

You don’t have money? Fine. You have time. Go ahead, tell me that with your 40 hour a week job you’re too busy to do anything. Like hell you are, you selfish son of a bitch. There are 128 hours left in your week after that. There are 88 hours after you factor in 8 hours of sleep a night. You mean to tell me that with 88 hours a week spent neither asleep or at work, you don’t have two or three hours a week to devote to some kind of volunteer work or charitable organization? You show me someone who says that and I will show you a heartless liar. I promise you, there is a Boys and Girls club near you. There is a soup kitchen, there is a Salvation Army, there is a hospital, a homeless shelter, hell, there’s a SCHOOL near you. You have no excuse.

Do you really think that those who are donating to Haiti do nothing here? You fools. Those who are moved to donate to Haiti are the same people who donate and volunteer within their own borders as well. I suggest to you all that it is those who are most opposed to helping those that have been plunged into this crisis who do the least to help out their own country. If you really care about your fellow Americans who are suffering and disadvantaged, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

I am a firm believer that if you choose not to vote, you have no right to criticize the government. I also firmly believe that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem, and have no right to speak on matters in which you do not participate. I think that those of you who protest aid to Haiti do so to mask your own cowardice and selfishness, and you should be ashamed of yourselves. I know that I am deeply ashamed of you.

Sex, Violence, and Videogames

So apparently the repeated public humiliation of Jack Thompson has not quite driven the message home to those who still insist that violent videogames are entirely responsible for the violence in our children and that the supposedly rampant sex is degrading the fragile morals of our youth and creating a generation of sluts and womanizers.

First off, this is ridiculous; there is no single cause for either of those problems. To place the blame entirely on videogames is to neglect the impact of the same elements in television, film, and interpersonal interactions within the home itself of the child in question. This is not to say that I condone or am downplaying the violence and sex in videogames and their impact on children, but rather that there are much stronger influences that need to be addressed.

For example, take the hype over the “sex scene” in a recent videogame, Mass Effect. People went CRAZY over this, so it must be terribly graphic! Well, lets watch and find out…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NragL5-7Mvo

Oh my, how scandalous! Not only is it sex, but that version had it between two girls! Now videogames are promoting homosexuality too! Before we gather up our torches and pitchforks and go after the perverts who placed this in a video game rated M, let us view another staggeringly popular sex scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpjZO3elaVM

Look familiar? Why yes ladies and gents, it’s from Titanic, a film rated PG 13. I first saw this when I was a tender 10 years old, with my 6 year old little sister sitting beside me on the couch. Scores of other children the same age as I saw it also, sending elementary school into a Leonardo DiCaprio frenzy.

A video game with a rating of M cannot be purchased by anyone under the age of 16 and requires a valid form of ID if there is any suspicion, I know because at 20 years old I have been carded for M rated games. A PG 13 movie, however, can be picked up by anyone with enough money to buy it. Due to the ease with which sexy/violent movies can be purchased and viewed, it is difficult for parents to control whether or not their offspring has access to it. If, however, an M rated game gets into the hands of a child, preteen, or teenager below the age of 16, it is most likely because the parent or an aunt/uncle made it possible. God forbid, however, that the parent be held responsible for allowing this.

Another popular claim is that the effect of violence in video games on malleable young minds is too much and that the children can’t tell reality from fiction. I’m sorry, but does anyone else remember The Power Rangers or The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Ok, what about The Power Puff Girls? Those are meant for kids between the ages of 5 and 10, and yet they are innocent when it comes to the violence in children?

I have a brilliant and unique new idea: PARENT YOUR FUCKING CHILDREN. If you don’t want them watching violent shows or playing violent videogames, then don’t let them. If you’re worried that they don’t understand the difference between fantasy and reality, sit them down and talk to them about it. Or better yet, tone down the sex and violence in your own home and see what a miraculous effect that has. It’s sickening the way parents deny their responsibilities to their children and place the blame on external sources that are easily controlled. If little Tommy’s parents let him watch violent TV and play violent games, don’t let your kid go over to Tommy’s house.

And that ends my rant for the evening.

My dear friends, do you remember when we were little?

Sitting in Mommy or Daddy's lap following along as they pointed to the words as they read us our beloved picture books, politically incorrect as they may have been? Most of us would beg our parents to read us stories before bed, and often even go so far as to insist that we really really couldn't fall asleep until they read us Goldy Locks and the Three Bears at least one more time.

As we got older and could read on our own, how many of us fell in love with Clifford the Big Red Dog, Goosebumps, and the Harry Potter series? Who can still remember the enthusiasm with which we searched the library for our paper back treasures and how eagerly we ran to our room as soon as we got home to turn it's slightly musty smelling pages?

Now though, when was the last time you read something that wasn't assigned? What was the last book you simply could not put down?

Something that I've noticed in my peers is the stubborn refusal to even pick up a book, much less finish one. I know the excuses, I've used some of them myself. I don't have time, I have too many classes, a huge paper is due tomorrow, I have to study for an exam. How is it that we are able to make time for video games, parties, television, and other such diversions, yet we can't make time to engage in something more.....intellectually stimulating, so to speak.

The intellectual depravity that runs rampant in my generation is astounding, the staunch refusal to enrich ones own mind is appalling. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I am no longer satisfied with mindless chatter over celebrities, video games, and crappy movies. I yearn for conversation that actually means something, that leaves me feeling as though it was time well spent as opposed to time that should have been spent on something useful.

Is anyone else as frustrated as I am?