Fixing The Problem of Violence

by Amber Maccione

On December 14th, I received a call from a friend telling me to turn on the news. My family is from Connecticut and my uncle teaches at an elementary school. My friend wasn't sure if the news would have affected my family.

After seeing what was going on in the news, I called my aunt. She informed me it was not my uncle's school, but she did have a friend who knew people there.

I am usually able to keep my cool when it comes to watching the news, but this time I could not bare to watch anything. As a mother with a young son, I just could not bare thinking about what had happened. I could not bare the pain because I know I would be devastated if I lost my child.

President Obama and so many have come to discuss in this week is what is to be done. Some say gun control. Others say video games and T.V./movies. And still others say lack of religion - prayer and Scripture within our schools and culture. I am not an expert on this issue, nor do I know what the right answer is. But I came across a quote on Facebook this week that really spoke to me and made me think about things.

The quote is from Martin Luther King Jr. - a man that we Americans respect so much for his civil rights efforts that we made a day for him. The quote is:

We must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murders.

I would agree. Why do we air so much about the person who did the murdering? I think it shows that our culture does glory in those that kill and murder. Why are we so concerned about he who did such an evil thing? Shouldn't our focus be on how we as Americans could have contributed to the issue of mass murder? Why do we as Americans love to see violence or talk about it or play with it? I have to sit back and ask myself that too because I am one that becomes like a drooling dog salivating over looking into serial killers and the next action packed movie. Why do I myself crave such things?

I think Martin Luther King Jr. hit it the nail on the head. We need to sit back and ask about our system, our way of life, and the philosophy that contributed for each and everyone of the murders in our country to do what they did. It is time to identify the real problems (which I do not think is gun control). I think the real problem is desensitization and a glorifying of violence.

So how do we fix the problem? I think it starts in the home. Parents need to be parents. Stop showing things to children at a young age. We need to take time to say no to our children and talk to them. Stop letting our media parent our children. Let's give our children back their innocence by allowing them to imagine and play. Limit the electronics. Put locks on our media such as computers and T.V.'s. And take time to know your child so that you can see early on what their needs are. And as a society, we need to come along to help when a parent has a child that may need a little extra something.

Fixing the problem needs to begin by realizing that we as Americans created it and we need to begin in the home to undo it.

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