Finding Solutions to Errors, and Healing

PRESIDENT OBAMA said we don't take good enough care of our children, and the united states of americans must change. Well, nothing wrong with stating the obvious now and then. Its a start. It gives us a firm foundation upon which to begin, to build.

But we must do more than cite error. Our man goethe (johann wolfgang von goethe, 1749-1832) reminds us that one must do more than cite error. We must provide a means for correcting error.  The president said he plans to get a bunch of folks together, teachers, parents, law enforcement people, mental health professionals, and have a long hard talk about what is wrong, and what to do about it.

So far, so good. May we all chime in?

For starters, we know that the united states of america was founded and built with violence and aggressive competition. And we understand that when violence, and competition, when these forces are unleashed and given full throttle, they are not amenable to coneveniently sliding back into the genie bottle and silently slipping away.

About a year ago I called the cable television company and politely but firmly instructed them to disconnect my cable service. I had had enough. Not only had I grown tired of the sexual seduction, I had became horrified of the constant barrage of violent images.  Also, it was a good way to save money, and to nudge towards more productive pursuits; reading, writing, exercising, enjoying friends and social activities.

I made the phone call around christmas, and they got around to respecting my wishes about the time days and nights equalized in length three months later. Give him some time. He'll come around. they all change their minds. We've seen it before. They can't last long without our drug. He'll come back, like they always do.

Little did they know. Let them play their little money grubbing corporate games. I'll be long gone by the time they bother to notice my absence. Can you believe they tried to bill me for the three months of unwanted service? Sardonically, I admired their temerity. Free market capitalism in its most audacious glory.

Hollywood does the saeme thing, because it works. Seduce 'em with sex, shock 'em with violence.  Grab their disposable, and not so disposable income. They cannot resist our alluring opiate.

Stoned on violent images, our children, who sat in front of the flat screen five hours a day for eighteen years, and witnessed something like twenty two thousand acts of vicarious violence, grow up angry, and set out to conquer the world in a society whose economic system worships at the sacred alter of me against the world competition. Go get 'em, tiger.

Obama and his assembled gang of experts might eventually be pleasantly surprised at the ease with which they arrive at the source of our horrific problem, our national sickness. Their next step is to find solutions, to correct errors. We can only hope they do it reasonably soon, before the carnage begins in  earnest.