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| Cole McGrath is a sophomore English major and writes 'International House of Slaw' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. |
LIMERICK, Ireland. ---áI have to admit that I bought it.
All the evidence seemed to the point that way. I felt as if I was a victim of it myself.
I'm talking about the claims that America's youth has been desensitized by violence on television, in video games and in movies.
The argument is really rather simple: We, America's pride and joy, giggling girls and bouncing boys, have seen so much gore presented to us in glowing blue light form that we don't care anymore when we witness violent acts and are actually able to separate them from what we perceive as being "real."
It really isn't so far fetched. Think about it.
A television police drama is on. Two officers, currently wanted by internal affairs by something they did not do and struggling with their marriages, gun down the "bad guy" who was fleeing the scene of what surely must have been a crime (TV police don't make mistakes).
They stand over the bleeding body, quip a smooth one-liner, laugh at their own comedic abilities in the face of human tragedy and then are off for coffee as the ambulance arrives.
Justice is served in a theatrical way and we eat it up without blinking an eye.
Does this make us monsters to have our heartstrings so severely drenched in Novocain? Does this mean that we will never really feel again?
Is the human race spinning toward some sort of automatic existence where we will have as much compassion as a dishwasher?
OK, the desensitization of America is not that bad, but I certainly thought that things were headed that way until just recently.
I was sitting in my apartment in Limerick and a commercial came on:
A young mother is picking up her son from kindergarten. It is a sunny day and some cheery music is playing in the background. The two are smiling as they get to the curb of the street. Holding his mother's hand, the boy looks both ways and they begin to cross the street.
BAM!
A car hits them. The mother flies up on to the hood and her face smashes into the windshield, as her son is dragged underneath the car. The scene changes to the mother watching her baby boy flat-line in the emergency room. The vignette ends with us seeing the driver of the car locked in a prison cell as a voice says, "Pay attention."
It is one of a series of brutally graphic Public Service Announcements in the UK and Ireland.
The first time, and every time thereafter, I saw that commercial, my heart looked to win the Olympic gold in the 100-meter sprint. I felt for the mother, whom I will never know and isn't even real. My soul ached. In that moment, I was stripped down to nothing. It was a truly human experience.
Oddly enough, that tragic scene gave me hope.
America, don't buy the hype. We are not doomed to become unfeeling zombies. We still feel. We just seem to forget we do a lot of the time.
Essentially though, deep down, we're still good.
So buck up, and for the love of all things good, look both ways when you cross the street.
Write to Cole at cpmcgrath@bsu.edu
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