April 20 forever changed the way we view ourselves as a culture and the media we demand. From the moment the Columbine High shootings hit the news, our society immediately began to witch-hunt to place blame.

We still continue to ask ourselves, “What power could have turned two normal children into brutal terrorists?” After the dust of confusion and disbelief has settled, it seems that blame has been placed safely and securely on the entertainment industry. Those immoral ———, of course, they are to blame.

We are now coolly and calmly convinced that the media, whether it be Marilyn Manson or hate-based websites, are the evil influences turning our children into murderers. Nobody points our that Eric and Dylan (the two killers at Columbine) were big fans of hate radio such as Rush Limbaugh, and they didn't even like Marilyn Manson, but that doesn't matter. We have a secure and defenseless criminal, one who goes by the broad name of “Media.” It's all so simple and black and white, isn't it?

In the weeks after the Columbine shooting, we have been shown the same repeated scenes on news broadcasts. We all watched through the prying lenses of news networks as the bloodied teenagers climbing out of the school through broken windows, as the families of victims mourned, and we even got to go inside the funerals of the victims and watch worldwide as families grieved. We sit in our living rooms, watching and listening to the graphic details of that day and think to ourselves, “Damn society for being so obsessed with violence.”

This kind of violence has exists all over America. A drive-by shooting in a black area of Los Angeles kills four children, but for some reason, it is hardly mentioned on the news. We have ignored the problem of violence for so long because it has been easy to ignore. It has existed in the projects and the ghettos of America. Yet now it has reached white middle-class America, and the alarm bells start ringing. Before it was because of drugs or gangs, but we really didn't care too much, did we?

But now that it has reached us, what do we do? Who do we blame?

Marilyn Manson isn't to blame. The Internet isn't to blame. Hollywood isn't to blame. And as much as I hate to say it, Rush Limbaugh isn't to blame.

There are two sides that each are at fault and each deserve “blame.”

The first is, of course, Eric and Dylan, two children who allowed themselves to be turned into monsters. Yet they need no blame, as I am sure their punishment is just. We cannot blame the entertainment industry because it is a variable. Children in Japan, in the United Kingdom, and even in Canada, view and listen to the same media that our children do, but for some reason lack the problem of adolescent terrorists.

Who is the second, you ask? Who else can we point our little fingers at? Ourselves.

We sit in front of the television, watching “World's Worst ——— Caught on Tape”; we watch wars happen a world away; we watch as CNN brings us up close and personal with everything violent we can get our hands on. And as we feed ourselves with violence, we dare to ask why the media is so over ridden with it. We dare to blame Marilyn Manson; we even dare to promote censorship for the very material we all quietly lust after — violence.

Violence is an American tradition and obsession, and anyone who claims to be outside of this box is fooling themselves. Until we stop this obsession, American kids will continue to join the ruthless cycle of violence.

Chris Armstrong

Spaceboy07@yahoo.com

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