Our daughter became so scared by a seemingly innocuous television show that it caused her to be too frightened to sleep. This got me to thinking about images, real and imagined. Shown and not shown. Words, spoken and unspoken. Noises and silences. I got to thinking of the particular images she must have conjured from the dialogue of a two-year old murder trial, and this ultimately led me to think of the images and words that flash before all of our eyes and/or ears on a daily basis…
Commercials.
Internet advertising.
Popups.
Movies.
"Reality" shows.
News.
Public conversations.
Sitcoms.
Theatre.
Concerts.
Art.
Political debates.
Arguments.
Road signs.
Billboards.
Radio.
Magazines.
Books.
Etc.
What images are we conjuring from them?
We, as well as our children, are exposed to most, if not all, of these things on a daily basis, right? We’re either involved in them firsthand or witnesses to them.
Now, if these things, particularly television, can cause such frightening images to form in our children’s minds causing them to be too scared to sleep, what effects are they having on us? For that matter, imagine seeing flag draped caskets, caskets of our troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan being carried to their final resting place or images of the dead and dying citizenry of Iraq and Afghanistan… Picture these images being shown on our televisions on a daily basis… What effect would they have on our children’s psyche? What effect would they have on us, the adults?
Would we have nightmares?
Would we all become so frightened that we couldn’t sleep?
If we did manage to sleep would we wake up screaming, covered in sweat?
Would we recoil at the mere thought of caskets, soldiers, draped in red white and blue?
Would we begin to resent the colors themselves?
Would we begin to lose weight and hair due to our constant anxiety?
Would we develop deep psychological problems?
Would we develop eating disorders?
Would politics become so corrupt that it threatens the constitution?
Would violent crime rates (murder, rape, armed robbery) soar?
Would children, and adults alike, begin to take guns to school or college to kill their classmates and teachers?
Would we become distrustful of our family members, neighbors and friends?
Would suicide rates of war vets become commonplace?
Would racism, classism, sexism, homophobia and intolerance in general still exist?
Would self-proclaimed Christians blow up buildings?
Would we become too afraid to even take a stand on vital matters?
Would we become the world's second worst polluter due to our consumption of oil?
Would we begin to strip away our own freedoms due to irrational fear and indifference?
Would we become a nation of basket cases without an nth of reasoning?
Would the hypocrisy of war and the death penalty before abortion, the environment and the poor become fashionable to those that claim to be righteous?
Would we begin to see all nations of the world and their peoples as our enemy?
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Iraq Death Toll
Afghanistan Death Toll
9-11 Death Toll
Post-War Suicides
I think we should see these things and hear these things.
Seen, unseen, spoken, unspoken.
The draped caskets needn't be hidden from us,
when they are it is an abomination.
A foul stench that will stay with us if we insist in hiding the truth of what we know,
like some child's game.
We know they are being killed
we know we're killing more than are taken.
We know...
So why the hell are we choosing
to pretend we're not?
It's a silly yet very lethal thing we're doing.
Let us see, taste, smell and feel the pain and sorrow, ours and that which we inflict.
If life indeed is "not fair" then why should we not swim in it?
We are not children in need of comfort.
We must be there for our children
but we must be there in truth not in perpetuating some deadly game of cat and mouse with reality.