Ashamed of us

I'm ashamed of us.  I mean I'm ashamed of us as a society.  It's gotten slowly out of hand over time and I

think we need to reexamine how we view things in todays modern society.  It's been on my mind for

sometime now but it became so apparent this week after the death of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University

student who jumped from a bridge after his personal life was broadcast for all to view.   Two Rutgers

students hid a web cam in Tyler's room and broadcast a sexual encounter over the web for all to see.  First

let me offer my condolences to Tyler's family and friends, suicide is a tragedy and having experienced this in

my own family I cannot grieve for you enough.  Second, let me express to you that I am ashamed that some

how we as a society would create an environment that someone, anyone would think these actions would be

appropriate or tolerated.   I suppose that these two students thought this was funny and in some ways we

are all responsible for that.  We post videos of people being embarrassed or hurt on you tube and they

get a million hits, we pay money to go see movies called JackAss or Borat where people are manipulated

into situations that are both degrading and humiliating.  These movies make millions, I believe I just saw an

advertisement for JackAss 3 so somebody's paying to see these movies.   Quite frankly I've never gotten

the comedy aspects of these movies but I know my teenagers think they are funny.  I'm ashamed of myself

now for not being more verbal about the fact they offer no socially redeemable values and permitting my

my kids to watch them.  I believe these movies, these 3 minute clips of life never show the long

lasting effects of our behavior or actions, never demonstrating the consequences known or unknown for the

participants.  So much so that they have become acceptable, that we have embraced them as a social medium

to entertain us despite their negative effects or costs to us as a society.  So far the the cost of one live video

broadcast is one promising violinist dead, two students who are likely to spend many years of their lives in

prison and a slew of family and friends grieving for all three of them.  I'm not laughing anymore and I hope you

won't either.