MuttonChops

The italicized text below was sent to me in an email, obviously supported by the friend that sent it. The message absolutely makes my skin crawl and sends chills up my spine. I will send a note to the person saying "Surely you don't believe this crap?" yet I am fascinated by the way people are so easily led, or accept such sweeping, generalized remarks. Even the most wholesome of television shows has issues. The Cleavers and Nelsons had no racial diversity and set a standard of an unattainable family lifestyle that forced the average American to build a wall around any deviation from the publicized "norm." Do people immitate what they see on television? Or is television merely a mirror of what people do? Personally, I see give and take in the public's relationship to media. Video games and movies do not create violent children. Unstable children believe they can mimic fantasy. My children would see idiots doing things on television, laugh, and say, "How...

Not only have I veered away from my normal routine, making my actions "para" normal, I have gotten involved with a new group delving into the "real" paranormal. (Is that an oxymoron?) As a couple of us work to stabilize a fledgling group, I find myself immersed in articles, information, blogs, and banter. From the age of 3, I have experienced interactions with the paranormal, but until more recent years, I have kept my recounts low-key. People already thought I was weird, so I saw no need to fuel the fire. With the onslaught of a myriad of television programs addressing "the other side," paranormal discussions have become more mainstream. The change in society's barometer has me pondering a couple of points. Television is given far too much power in our lives, shaping societal attitudes and opinions. Rather than people gathering information and really analyzing data for themselves, they accept everything on television as-is. In some rarer cases, there ...