Your Letters, March 22, 2001

For mercy's sake

Today, I listened to a talk show host defend modern music withviolent content. His defense was that he knows lots of kids whoweren't adversely affected by such music. I'm sure he does. But ineach group of 100 or so kids who are not affected adversely, therewill be two or three who are affected to the degree that in timethey will be the ones who will be responsible for another Columbine.

Children come into this world totally selfish. They are thecenter of the world in their own little minds, and when thingsaffect them adversely, they immediately respond.

They scream, they hit, they bite, they kick, or they lay on thefloor and throw a tantrum. How we respond is, to a great degree,responsible for whether this form of reprisal on their part iseffective. I had a nephew who was a biter. The first time he bit me,I responded by putting his little arm in my mouth, and I clampeddown hard enough to leave prints of my teeth in his arm.

You can rest assured, that was the last time he bit me.

In today's world, in the homes of those 100 or so children, youwill find as many as half of those homes with firearms of one kindor another, and the necessary ammunition used in these weapons. Sowhen something happens that calls for a violent response in the mindof these 1 or 2 percent of the population of 13- to 14-year-olds,they immediately think of retaliation to a slight or taunt, and thethoughts of "revenge" turn to the use of deadly force.

This is almost normal for a child that witnesses hundreds ofkillings a week on the tube and listens to musical artists who makemillions singing about about various form of violent behavior asbeing normal.

This puts our society in a sort of "Catch 22" situation. We can'tstop these purveyors of violence and filth because of the "freespeech" guaranteed in our laws, and we can't stop our children frommentally ingesting this trash.

Formerly, we were satisfied to see two men get into a boxing ringand duke it out, but today we are only satiated by the death ormutilation of scores of victims, the bloodier the better. Thesaying, "God have mercy on us," is becoming more and more needed.

Chester Batsell

St. Joseph

Internet fan

Every day I appreciate the Internet a little more, especially nowthat I can read the St. Joseph News-Press in my study at home inArlington, Va.

I worked at the paper (for The Gazette) as a copy boy and laterthe Kansas City Star, before moving to Washington, D.C. Thanks forhaving a first-rate Web site and thanks, too, for bringing back alot of memories.

Bill Ellingsworth

Arlington, Va.