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Submitted by Xan on Tuesday, November 7, 2006 at 10:19 PM EST
 "You have to deal with the fact that your life is your life."--Alex Hailey Isn't there anyone out there in the world that can fucking think for themselves anymore? I'm getting really tired of a lot of things out there. I'm tired of politicians telling lies, making money, and doing more and more to ruin the shit that hasn't been ruined yet. I'm tired of working two jobs and still being able to barely take my wife out to dinner every now and then. I'm tired of hearing every few months about how there's going to be a new Die Hard or Indiana Jones flick. I'm tired of Friends clones, seventeen different takes on reality shows, and Regis Philbin. I'm tired of hearing about steroids in baseball. I'm tired of the WWF shoving John Cena(who I like) and Randy Orton(who I don't) down my throat all the time without them actually earning the attention, but most of all, I'm fucking tired of these little kids either hurting themselves or being hurt by others and having people blame the sport of kings for it. Two little fucks; Kareem Pendergraph, 6, and Applejack(I wish to God I was making this name up, but I'm not) Williams, 13; died in Syracuse, New York, when they hung themselves from their doorknobs and the initial story said that it was due to the influence of watching wrestling. In fact, the story said that police believed Pendergraph was imitating a wrestling move. Well, folks, exactly what wrestling move have you seen that involves a wrestler hanging themselves with a belt? Personally, I haven't seen any, and it's pretty rare that you see a wrestler hanging another one, as well. I think I've probably seen one wrestler hang another with a belt something like 3 times in my 18 years of watching wrestling. Yet, these two morons, who combined had barely been alive for as long as I've been a fan had somehow both been influenced enough by this rare phenomenon to attempt it on themselves? Not fucking likely. By the way, after that last paragraph I'm sure quite a few of you think I'm either making light out of a tragedy and/or speaking ill of the dead. As for the former, let me assure you that I'm not. First of all, it isn't a tragedy. Two morons(who apparently the police believe knew each other) strangling themselves by hanging a belt from a doorknob is not a tragedy. I feel for their families, and it certainly is tragic; death always is. That doesn't make it a tragedy. People die all the time. Is each death a tragedy? No, of course not. If these guys were in control of other people's lives when they decided to hang themselves, then it would be a tragedy. As for speaking ill of the dead, I suppose it could be construed that way, but whether or not a person is a moronic fuck or not really doesn't depend on whether they happen to be breathing at the time. A person who hangs himself from a doorknob with a belt is an idiot, and a dead idiot is still an idiot. "Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world."--Helen Keller Now that we've got that cleared up, let's also discuss the fact that these idiots and others like them are ruining things for the rest of us. Now, as I stated earlier, I don't believe for one fucking second that they hung themselves because of a wrestling program they watched, and once everything comes to light I doubt the cops will, either. In fact, if they haven't collectively slapped themselves in the forehead with a big goddamned, "Doh!" for saying such a stupid thing in the first place, I would be quite surprised. Where this idea could even come from is a genuine puzzler. The only guess I have is that after the mother informed the police about young Kareem's obsession with pro wrestling--and I DO mean obsession. Hell, I thought I used to be obsessed with pro wrestling because I would make top 10 lists and shit years before I began writing wrestling columns, but this dude takes the cake. He was 6 YEARS OLD, folks, and he kept logs about the wrestling he watched on TV and played on the computer. You know, after typing that sentence, reading it, and re-reading it several times to figure out what comes next in this little rant, I'd have to say that maybe my original impression of Kareem was a little off base. Maybe he isn't an idiot; judging from this information he was a little off his rocker. Calling him a lunatic is a little strong, considering his age, but he was definitely heading towards crazy and could have used some guidance. Unfortunately, he was burdened with parents who were apparently unable to provide that. Of course, professional wrestling also wasn't able to provide it, but that's not its job. Society, especially those in positions of authority such as politicians, bureaucrats, and police officers, are wont to point fingers at forms of entertainment rather than suggest for one second that maybe the parents aren't doing their damned jobs. No, they leave that to opinion columnists such as myself. Well, I'm not just an opinion columnist. As I've previously discussed in the Star, I'm also a parent of two children. Michele will be 12 in less than a month and Cody turned 10 two months ago. Cody's been watching wrestling with me for about 5 years now, and while we wrestle around sometimes, he's never tried to strangle me, Michele, Mellisa, or himself with a belt. More to the point, he doesn't run around punching people or trying to suplex and piledrive his friends at school. Michele has watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series with me for the last 3 years and she's never tried to stake or bite any of us. Children are NOT a product of the television they watch. They are a product of their environment and how we, the parents, raise them. This is assuming, of course, you actually are doing what you can to influence your children. If you just let your child watch whatever the hell they want with no supervision and no interaction from you whatsoever, you really are opening the floodgates. "I keep trippin' and stumblin', if you'd look down here, you'd see. Walk a little straighter, Daddy, you're leading me."--Billy Currington See, that way, you're letting television become your child's environment, and if you let that happen you've failed as a parent. If you're going to do that, you've thrown your hands up in the air and said, "World, take my child and do with him/her as you see fit." That is NOT the fault of the medium to which you've abandoned your child, it is the fault of you and you alone. But, what exactly are you at fault for? Well, that depends on what becomes of the child, of course. If the child grows up to become the next Steven Spielberg, I suppose you can pat yourself on the back for a job done well, even if it was actually done quite poorly. However, if your children shoot up a school like the two teenagers did to Columbine, you can hang your heads that you did a terrible enough job of raising your children that they planned a murderous rampage right under your nose instead of blaming television, rock music, and the ready availability of guns. It's also time for the media and authority figures to start placing the blame where it belongs instead of trying to censor the forms of entertainment that "cause" these "tragedies." What I'm trying to get across is an old twist on a classic: tv shows don't kill people, people kill people...and sometimes those people are themselves. When one is a child moving on to adolescence and then to adulthood, the one constant seems to be the desire for increased responsibility. We want later times to hang out with our friends, more things to be held accountable for, we want to stop being treated "like a child." This all seems to be the case until we get to actually be adults and have kids. Once that happens, it's apparently then time to play the blame game. I urge you to fight this...um...urge. Spend time with your children as much as you can. Talk to them about the ways of the world and what you expect their place in it to be. If you develop that kind of relationship with your child, it won't matter that they hear gangstas rapping about killing bitches and dealing drugs on their CDs or watching screen villains getting away with all sorts of crimes on television or that they see Shawn Michaels and Triple H crotch-chopping at their opponents or Umaga beating up women. It won't matter because they'll have your influence in their minds and consciences to win out over crap like that. After all, the relationships that they have with these people is all illusory, while the bonds they have with you are real. I've said before that we must all follow as well as we can the path that ka sets before us, and that's true, but it's also true that it's part of our job to shine a light on that of our children and lead the way. Even if we know they can't be perfect because nobody is, isn't it our job to give them a shot at it? Long days, pleasant nights That will conclude today's voyage on The Northern Star. For feedback, please email me atXanManX@hotmail.com, with the words "Northern Star" or "feedback" in the subject line or click here to leave your thoughts in the LOPForums. The Northern Star will rise again.
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