I can't talk

[Dixon Carter Lee]

I just watched video of a twelve year old boy and his father being shot in Israel. I was on ABCNews.com and I clicked ont he video, thinking they'd cut away or something. I just watched two people die on the Internet. I just watched a snuff film. There are no more lines...

 

[CreamyLady]

There haven't been lines for some time now, DCL. Artists and photographers have been capturing, and rendering, the face of brutality for centuries. It never gets easier to see; at least, it's not supposed to.

We are supposed to care, to get angry, to do everything in our power to make it stop. Instead, nowadays, it is all too easy to change the channel, or change websites.

The image stays with us, though. Maybe we should act on it.

 

[Alyrahh]

Were you traumatized Dixon? Do you need a shoulder to cry on?

No, seriously, that's horrible. I've run into a few things online that have left me with nightmares, believe it or not. But, then again, I'm a softy. (Not one of them thar tough womens that FBlue speaks of)

 

[Always]

*shakes head* gods that's sad...

exucse me, expertise, but I wasn't making a flippant fucking comment, i was serious.

evil people do evil things, and you think I wouldn't like to turn that gun on the motherfucker?

[Edited by Shila on 10-02-2000 at 10:05 AM]

 

[Expertise]

Nice to see that there is room for flippant fucking comments when somebody mentions that they just saw a 12 year old kid shot to death.

Jesus wept.

 

[Ravenloft]

It would seem we are on a titanic to hell folks...

 

[FlamingoBlue]

This is what happens when....

ideologies clash and violence erupts. When I was in Israel 2 years ago, I was in a constant state of anxiety as I watched life go on there. I walked through a marketplace in Jeruselum where a bomb had gone off and killed 70+ people, 6 months before. I rode on a busline where another bombing had killed scores of people 1 year before.
I toured sites of ancient and modern battles. I spoke to ordinary Israelis and Palestinians who wanted the killing to stop but felt powerless to do anything. I wept when I toured Yad V'shem and saw the memorials to the Holocaust.

I spoke to retired Israeli soldiers who wanted no more blood shed. I ate with young Palestinians who decried the brutality of the conflict and felt equally powerless.


And then, after 2 weeks, I returned to the U.S.A. and thanked God that I live here.

I turn on the TV and read the print media that tells me of violent unrest all over the world. People killing their neighbors and their countrymen and the wars continue, unabated. And then we see a video of an Arab child being killed and its just more of the same, just a different cast of characters in a different location.

Why is peace so illusive? Why is there so much conflict, everywhere? Its not just the times because people have been killng each other people in the name of righteousness since the beginning of time.

One thing that we can never be is SPEECHLESS, no matter how great the atrocity. Numb, yes. Speechless, never!!!

I am so burned out by the violent conflict that I see in my practice, that some days I don't even go into work. I hate conflict, but what I hate even more is that when I become embroiled in it, the conflict churns up that old blood lust that I have tried to bury, And I hate that even more.

Thanks for giving me a place to state my feelings. Now, I have to get back to work and see if I can keep people from "kiling" each other. Have a good day.

blue

 

[Bliss]

Obviously they gave no warning. That's especially disturbing considering that children have easy access to that site.

Two similar video clips/photos stand out in my memory. One was Vietnam War era and the other from the Tienamen Square conflict. Very disturbing but at least on television they are compelled to warn you to turn your head or leave the room.

Odd that they felt free to exercise their "freedom of speech" but none realized that by providing no warning they are taking away your right to choose not to see that. Even if you don't send one, I'm sure they'll get plenty of complaints.

 

[Alyrahh]

My biggest gripe about them showing things like that, is how over a period of time it desensitizes people. Sure, in the beginning it's shocking, and cause for disturbed feelings, but they continually do it until we're all numb to it.

That scares me, afterall, you'd have to be pretty well desensitized to kill someone wouldn't you? We certainly don't need the media aiding in the process.

 

[teresafannin]

It is a terrible thing & it is everywhere. It is like CL said,the images of violence have always been with us. Now it is just so easily accessible. The violence is everywhere & unfortunately, it gets big ratings & it sells. In the past year, I have been appalled to learn just how much violence sells for. I have had people offer me obscene amounts of money for the crime scene photos of where my son died. I have never seen those pictures, since there will be no trial & I hope no one else sees them either. At the very least, ABC should have put up a disclaimer about the video. It is so hard to know what to do. I am trying, in a small way, to make the media realize that they have a bit of responsibility in how they present a story. Take care.

 

[April]

Re: This is what happens when....

One thing that we can never be is SPEECHLESS, no matter how great the atrocity. Numb, yes. Speechless, never!!!

Good point, Blue. No, we are not speechless. We have the means to make our voices and opinions heard and acted upon.

For example: if you don't like NBC's coverage of the Olympics, send them feedback telling them what you don't like about it.
Showing video on the Internet of someone being killed is in appallingly bad taste. Tell them.

The conflict in Israel is horrendous and terrible. Make your opinion known where it might do some good.

Visit the government web sites and tell them. Visit the U.N. web site and tell them too. Same with the Israeli sites.

Don't just sit and say "That's too bad for them." Do something about it. What good is having a voice if you don't use it try to change the world for the better?

 

[KillerMuffin]

I wish...

It would be nice to turn the gun on the assassins who do the dirty work. But there will always be more assassins to do more dirty work.

The people who began it, the ones who started the conflict, are just as guilty. The ones who order the death, but never pull the trigger.

"Acceptable losses" is just another military phrase. Our cause is just, therefore we must do what we must do, and there will be "acceptable losses" by "expendables." It used to be that only soldiers were considered "expendables," but now days warfare is fought terroristically. Yes, even the so-called superpowers do it. We are terrorists and we perpetrate terroristic activities. The phrase "acceptable civilian casualties" has crept into our military's vocabulary. "Urban combat" is something we train strongly for.

And somewhere else in the world a child is murdered to further a cause, the cause that someone thinks is just. For the simple expedient of getting it on the news.

Sometimes, at night, when he is home, I hear his screams and hold him through the tears. Its been 10 years now, and I will never know why.

 

[Myrrdin]

~Wonders if there are any statistics to compare the number of Israeli citizens shot per head of population, per annum, as compared to the US population.~ Which would be the highest?

From a country that has some of the most lenient gun laws in the world, are we all so used to gun deaths in our own country that they don't make the news anymore?

Would the broadcasters show a fatality of a US citizen? I doubt it. Too much chance of litigation, from family etc. Do they consider it safer if it's a foreign national?
Less comebacks? Does this lead to an impression that it only happens over there, not in our own country.

Like wise , when an aeroplane crashes, its always headline news. Does this give us the impression that aeroplanes are unsafe? When in fact aeroplanes are one of the safest forms of transport. It's the rarity of the event is what makes it news worthy. They're far safer than automobiles. Car accidents happen so often as to be commonplace, and not newsworthy.

Of course broadcasters are always going to push the limits of what they can broadcast. Here in the UK, we,re being treated to a whole series of fly on the wall documentaries. From morgues, post mortems, accident and emergency wards, accident sites etc.

Why not? These things happen. Why should we be shielded?

 

[Always]

damn, Myrrdin...

and it's all true.

 

[FlamingoBlue]

The horror of it all....

should never be shielded from us. That's the only way that it will ever stop!!!

There are deniers everywhere as there ar people who feel that we somehow avert our eyes and our hearts from the faces of terror. Confront it and stop it, I say!!!

blue