First off, background on this case in case you haven't been watching the news:
Christopher Lane, a baseball player in Australia, was visiting the town of Duncan, Oklahoma where his girlfriend and her family live. As an athlete, Lane stays in shape and so he decided to take a jog around the neighborhood. He happened to pass a house where three
Now that we have a little background on this incident, what the hell motivates someone, let alone three someones, to take a break from boredom and shoot an innocent civilian? Is is that gun that might be sitting on a coffee table, or in a locked closet or even fully loaded on their hip? OR is it society and parenting and lack of respect for human life?
If you answered that the gun did this, please, for all of us, continue reading.
A gun does not motivate someone to go out and shoot anyone, just as a knife does not promote stabbing someone nor a car motivate you to run over innocent people on the sidewalk. However, bad things happen when thoughts go the wrong way and access to that tool is, in fact, available to you. And before anyone gets the idea that I am going to be preaching about thought control or some B.S. like that, you can stop fretting. Free thinking is what is letting me write this right now and it is the greatest tool I have as a journalist so, yes, I condemn thought police at any stage.
What, then, do I propose?
A change to society. A change to how we raise our children. A change to how we, as a society, view human life.
How are we, as a society, responsible for what happened in Duncan, OK? Simply because we, as a majority, have become less demanding on what we want our children to do with their life. We have allowed children to be raised to believe that they can do what they want and there won't be any consequences down the road. We have promoted a culture of sex, drugs, alcohol and violence that, simply, poisons the minds of youth. Even people my own age, and even myself, have promoted this sort of "consequence-free, do what you want" lifestyle.
We see hundreds of video games that feature death, killing and guns as the center-piece for some role-play. This is also a staple of Hollywood and has been the theme of more and more movies: kill the bad guys, use big cool guns, look badass, end the movie. However, these aren't the things that lead to cold-blooded killers at 15-17. I, myself, have played multiple games featuring these themes and I have yet to even have the thought of running out of my house, gun in tow, and shooting down a jogger. The entire mantra of "video game violence is bad for children" is only true if you, as a parent, sibling or care-giver don't have the ability or drive to teach that same child that human life is of greater value than anything on this earth.
The value of human life has been degraded almost to the point of no-repair. This sex culture we live in, where telling a girl that she should dress modestly or that she might want to stop hooking up with multiple guys just for fun is viewed as slut-shaming and telling a guy to stop sleeping around and that he might want to think about his choices is going to get you shunned, is despicable. Yes, sex is cool and you can go have as much sex as you want. BUT, there is a but in there, wait till you have a committed relationship. Wait until you know for a fact that this guy or girl is actually worth sharing the closest intimacy two people can have.
Then, we come to the real problem of sex before a committed relationship: abortion! If you didn't think that abortion was going to come up in a piece about the value of life, then you probably need to rethink things and keep reading! Abortion is the greatest slap in the face to human dignity that has ever been thought of and that's why you'll see me bring it up many times in many different forms. When we degrade a human to the point of needing reasons to call the most innocent of us a "clump of cells" or a "parasite," you know that something is really wrong with society. Is this a call for an end to abortion? Yes and no. Yes, because I kinda always do that when I get the chance and a good size audience. No, because this is really a call to upgrade the value that society puts on human life (which in it's own way would see the end of abortions).
Now, add up the last two things. Violent video games or tv shows/ movies with little ability or drive to teach youth responsibility and the value of human life PLUS the degradation of human life and value of that life by society as a whole. What do you get? Cold-blooded teenage murderers.
What do we do to solve this eerily easy math problem?
It's simple. We kill the Batman. No, crap, wrong line.
It's simple. We change society. We make sure that people, adults first, understand that human life is of greater importance than jobs, money, politics or anything else. We educate the youth on the value of life and that we don't regenerate in quite the same way as you do in Halo or Call of Duty. We do the most good we can and attempt to limit the bad influences in our life and that of our children/ young adults.
What we don't do, however, is throw away violent video games, parentally protect your child from watching G.I. Joe because of the guns or stop children from reading books like Harry Potter because of the sorcery involved. There is no possible way that we can control everything that happens to our youth, at least no way that is healthy for their development and to let them lead their own life. We simply have to make sure that we impress upon our children and loved ones that human life is real, valuable and not something to be tossed around. We teach responsibility and portray a life that is worthy of respect and dignity.
Those few things will add up to change society and save lives, not only in the womb, but also on streets.
Lastly, once again, please pray for Christopher, his family, friends and loved ones and the citizens of Duncan. And may God have mercy on the souls of these troubled youth.
God bless.
Sex culture? Let's talk about rape culture.
ReplyDeleteRape Culture Is…
1. A university in Canada that allows the following student orientation chant: “Y is for your sister. O is for oh-so-tight. U is for underage. N is for no consent. G is for grab that ass.”
2. Pop music that tells women “you know you want it” because of these “blurred lines” (of consent).
3. A judge who sentenced only 30 days in jail to a 50-year-old man who raped a 14-year-old girl (who later committed suicide), and defended that the girl was “older than her chronological age.”
4. Mothers who blame girls for posting sexy selfies and leading their sons into sin, instead of talking with their sons about their responsibility for their own sexual expression.
5. Photo memes like this:
(see article link below)
6. Supporting athletes who are charged with rape and calling their victims career-destroyers.
7. Companies that create decals of a woman bound and gagged in order to “promote their business.”
8. People who believe that girls “allow themselves to be raped.”
9. Journalists who substitute the word “sex” for “rape” – as if they’re the same thing.
10. Politicians distinguishing “legitimate rape” and stating that rape is “something that God intended to happen,” among other horrendous claims.
11. Calling college students who have the courage to report their rapes liars.
12. The ubiquity of street harassment – and how victims are told that they’re “overreacting” when they call it out.
13. Victims not being taken seriously when they report rapes to their university campuses.
14. Rape jokes – and people who defend them.
15. Sexual assault prevention education programs that focus on women being told to take measures to prevent rape instead of men being told not to rape.
16. The victimization of hospital patients, especially people with mental health issues and the elderly, by the very people who are there to protect them.
17. Reddit threads with titles like “You just have to make sure she’s dead” when linking to the story of a 13-year-old girl in Pakistan being raped and buried alive.
18. Reddit threads dedicated to men causing women pain during sex (I’m not going to give the thread credence by linking to it).
19. Twitter hashtags that support accused rapists and blame victims.
20. Publicly defending celebrities accused of rape just because they’re celebrities and ignoring or denouncing what the victim has to say.
21. Assuming that false reporting for sexual assault cases are the norm, when in reality, they’re only 2-8%, which is on par with grand theft auto.
22. Only 3% of rapists ever serving a day in jail.
23. Women feeling less safe walking the streets at night than men do.
24. 1-in-5 women and 1-in-71 men having reported experiencing rape.
25. The fact that we have to condition ourselves not to use violent language in our everyday conversations.
And the list could go on.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/03/examples-of-rape-culture/
EDUCATE YOURSELF
I'm not really sure what "rape culture" has to do with a post where the blogger defended none of the things you're ranting about...
ReplyDelete"where telling a girl that she should dress modestly or that she might want to stop hooking up with multiple guys just for fun is viewed as slut-shaming"
ReplyDeleteThat is rape culture. Acting as if slut-shaming isn't real or isn't harmful to the way we view sex and consent and women in this society. The fact that you think you have a right to tell a woman how to dress is rape culture.
If you are going to try to use "sex culture" to defend your claim that our society has no respect for human life, you should probably look at the ways you are propagating dangerous stereotypes that create the idea that rape is ok because a woman was dressed a certain way. That shows a lack of respect of humans. Not that a girl has multiple sex partners or chooses to wear a short skirt. That harms no one.
"Yes, sex is cool and you can go have as much sex as you want. BUT, there is a but in there, wait till you have a committed relationship."
You don't have any right to force your beliefs on other people. People are going to have sex. And you are wrong for judging them.
I want to just let you know that I did reply to your first comment here: http://rightofcenterfield.blogspot.com/2014/04/rape-culture-or-something-else.html.
DeleteAlso, I wanted to respond to this latest comment.
We are on two separate ends of the spectrum here and that is something that neither of us can change. My belief that girls dressing modestly and refraining from having sex until they are in a committed relationship (the same standards I hold for guys) is not part of this fantastical rape culture. It is a part of the movement to end a culture enveloped in sex every day. However, to you and those that think similarly to you, I will always be the one shaming people and perpetuating a fantasy of rape culture, which is fine with me. If you want to believe that, I can't stop you.
Now, I have never forced beliefs onto anyone at any point in my life. I never call for a change in law, I simply call for a change in beliefs. I do not demand it, I suggest it. I know people are going to have sex, I've had sex, I know that it's a thing people do. That doesn't mean that people can't be smart about who they have sex with and when they do.
If this belief system makes me wrong, even though I don't judge anyone, I completely accept being in the wrong and will most likely never change.
Thank you for visiting my blog, commenting and I truly hope you stay around to comment more or at the very least read my thoughts. If you want to engage in more discussion I suggest emailing me at rightofcenterfield@gmail.com and there will be no threat to your anonymity.