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VIOLENCE 

There was a time when movies could not show the shooter and the victim in the same frame. Film makers had a set of guidelines, known at the time as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's designated chief censor, Will H. Hays. Despite the fact that the office had no real punitive power, its code spelled out what was unacceptable content for films, almost from the beginning of the industry. This protocol was abandoned in 1968 in favor of the current film rating system.

There are several reason for the demise of the Code, the greatest of which is cable TV. It has offered a surfeit of blood, gore and pornography almost from its inception. Only the internet and the spectrum of video games exceeds cable in the excess of violence and degradation of aberrant human sexuality available to malleable minds - young and old. We should accept that each of us, including the youngest and most innocent among us have been conditioned by the new norm.

Our U.S. Supreme Court has, all along, not been helpful. "Whatever the market desires, it will be provided," is the philosophy driving various forms of depravity, including the profit derived from it.

The core problem as I see it, is that some people are affected by the onslaught of violence more severely than others, and when a "tipping point" is reached in their sick minds, they do what the perverse media tells them is appropriate. They may only act out with disruptive behavior or become reclusive. They may exhibit severe anxiety or aggressiveness, or an irrational hatred of a person or society at large.

Though there should be, there is no way to keep clever people from obtaining weapons, explosives or poisons in massive amounts. Case in point: Oklahoma City, April 19. 1955 - Timothy McVeigh killed 168.

Why don't we act to keep sick people from harming others or themselves?  Why do their families, acquaintances, co-workers, even police, ignore the early warning signs?

If diagnosis is available to determine whether perpetrators are malingering after committing a heinous act, surely intervention is available beforehand. "Acting crazy" in court is not uncommon, according to psychiatric workers. It is imminently detectable, and punishable by existing law, as obstruction of justice. 

My concern is this: after each of these horrendous episodes, society seems to suffer a collective amnesia. Instead of using the knowledge about existing treatment, and if necessary, detainment in an institution, we go about our daily lives - until the next massacre.  Now that is not reasonable, in itself.

Our leaders, our legislatures and the public at large have chosen to ignore the problem. Any attempt to try and abate this universal societal problem is going to impinge severely upon our pocketbooks - and besides, it's someone else's problem, not mine or yours.

Unless it happened to someone you know or in a community you love, here are a few names and events we soon apt to forget:

Scores of other victims were injured, hundreds of others will be forever scarred - in their bodies and their minds. Thousands of families and friends are affected adversely and millions of others are sickened by this senseless slaughter.

-Phil Richardson, Observer and Story Teller


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