by Richard Serra

Created on: October 21, 2009

Most would think that because of how many children and young teens that are kidnapped and murdered these days, we are living in some very dark times. Almost every other week, we seem to be glued to the cable news once they start their daily reporting of any incident when it comes to a child being murdered.

What most do no think about is that we have many more citizens in this country than ever before, and that in fact, our children are much safer today than back 60 years ago. Thats correct, back in the fifties there were far more predators than we have today. We just never heard about the crimes. Not till TV took hold, and censorship was all but removed, have we had so much panic, as a result of all of it's negative broadcasting.

Today if there is a murder in California, the East coast and the rest of the world hears about it every day until the next murder. Back in the fifties, we never heard of any murders unless they were within a 20 mile radius, and you had to come across the article rather than see it all on the front page. The fact is that it is all on the decline, and for a couple of reasons, but the fear and panic seems to grow out of control as the media bombards us with the latest details of these horrific crimes.

We are living in a paranoid world as a result, and although it's great that the media is responsible for the decline in kidnappings and murder, the public lives in fear as a result of all the attention. One child out of a billion is much too much to lose to a homicide, but when you think about it, the chances of one of our children being kidnapped are about as remote as winning the lottery. People do win, and so do the murders continue, but it's not as though we can't go on living a normal existence.

If today, we never heard of a murder or kidnapping of a child or young adult, we wouldn't be living in such fear, and we wouldn't be so quick to avoid the innocent attention towards our children that is shown from strangers. It's sad, but true, many innocent child loving strangers who would love to smile or give a pat on the head of a child, simply do not take the chance doing so.

A parent normally would be proud to have strangers remark about how sweet or adorable their child is, but because of the media blitz, they pull them back, or hide them away, and tell them not to look or speak to strangers. Eventually, following generations will be so paranoid that no one will feel they can trust anyone other than family.

As a child growing up in the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>