Reality has more effect on young people than reality TV
Re: “Dumb college prank gone wrong isn’t a hate crime,” Oct. 6
I am not claiming that shows like “Maury” or “The Jerry Springer” meet the standard of high-quality viewing, but I cannot condone making them the scapegoat for suicide cases whose roots are socially deeper than trashy TV.
By stating that a mentality of nonprivacy is the result of such shows, Gregory Kane does little more than throw a straw man into the equation, implying that the college generation is not intelligent enough to differentiate between reality and the realm of television.
While such shows may have been viewed by the freshman from Rutgers, I am confident he had the mental capacity to acknowledge them as entertainment. Perhaps his real issues developed not from what he viewed through a glass box, but from what he directly perceived firsthand.
An episode of “Test Them! Is My Fiance Sleeping With My Mom?” does not have as much effect on a young adult as witnessing the umpteenth divorce of friends’ parents, the pastor’s sex scandal, or the professor who harasses a student. These things have a greater detrimental effect on a young person than an unknown 16-year-old’s testing of the ninth potential father of her baby on “Maury.”
Bethany Miller
Fairfax
Conflict in Afghanistan has similar roots as Vietnam
Re: “You don’t need Woodward’s book … to figure out why we’re in Afghanistan,” Oct. 5
Despite all the print devoted to “Why Afghanistan?” the reason is singular and simple: The horrendous military-industrial complex fuels the economy, keeps our equipment well-oiled, and unfortunately steeply increases our national debt, which is now soaring well beyond $14 trillion.
The Vietnam tragedy had similar roots, at the expense of millions of lives from supersonic aircraft (which didn’t work so well) to Agent Orange. We “lost” this war, but only because of national and international protest and the failure to reach the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese population. President Lyndon Johnson simply got tired of lying.
Now it’s Obama’s turn. Mr. President, stop the killing and stop referring to this as a “war.”
Edward Abramic
Washington
Still waiting for the real recovery
Economics has been called the dismal science, but recent announcements by a team of economists indicate that it is the science of ineptitude. How else can one explain their decision that the recession was over 15 months ago and that we have been on the road to recovery ever since?
Are nearly 10 percent unemployment, a stagnant economy and a continuing effort to introduce more stimulus spending now considered recovery in this new world?
The rank-and-file workers, as well as the unemployed, are not convinced, nor am I. For us, recovery means lower unemployment, better opportunities and a strengthened economy, and we are still waiting.
Nelson Marans
Silver Spring
