Читать книгу Predators Live Among us - Diane Roblin Lee - Страница 5

In the time it took for Ward Cleaver and the Fonze to morph into Homer Simpson and his South Park neighbors, the fiber of humanity changed. Once-safe sidewalks, filled with active children, emptied into avenues where anxious parents now drive their children to school. Parks became places to watch for strangers who lurk suspiciously around playgrounds. Hugs from teachers were replaced by lessons on “good-touch / bad-touch.” The gentle priest became a questionable figure in the parish. Uncle Jack lost his time-honoured mantle of trustworthiness.

Like the frog sitting comfortably in a pan of warm water, not noticing the increase in temperature until it was too late, the world gradually lost its innocence. It seems incomprehensible to parents lulled to sleep by the innocuous Cleavers that they could suddenly wake up to the irreverent Simpsons, only to discover the deterioration wrought on society in the transition from Beaver to Bart.

Those who grew up watching “Happy Days” enjoyed the normal indulgence of adolescence where one delights in a certain arrogance that offends others. That mind-set unlocked the doors for those who sought to devalue the moral code of the day. It opened the floodgates for the reception of media programming and Internet content that demeaned integrity, decency and human character.

Now that we’ve grown up and regard that youthful arrogance as foolish immaturity, it’s too late to push back the flood. But while Beaver Cleaver has become a societal aberration, society in general is still stuck in the immaturity of the Bart mode. It needs to grow up and take responsibility for itself.

We’ve been hit hard with a sudden onslaught of sexual child abuse and we have to deal with it. This isn’t television. This isn’t a video game. This is real life. We have to protect our little ones.