Magazine

Mentoring and the Internet, by Ted Nellen

Mentor to a student:

Thank you for sharing your essay on violence  It is encouraging
for adults to see that younger people are interested in the very
topics they will be responsible for handling when they themselves
become adults  By "Responsible for handling" I mean that each
individual has a responsibility to better the world they are
living in, even if the scope of that betterment only reaches
their own home.  

Although I agree with you that the media is not completely
responsible for the level of viloence in the world today, I do
feel it plays a more predominant role  Some people believe that
what separates humans from the bestial ways of the animals is our
ability to reason and form scocieties that follow rules which
protect us all  These "rules" take on the form of law, religion
and scocietal morals  For a society to survive, these rules must
be followed and encouraged or we revert back to our animal nature 
How do you positively encourage people to follow 

these rules?  By following them yourself and surrounding yourself
with positive examples  The violence that you see all around you
on television and in movies does not encourage this  They promote
the idea that bad behavior exists and therefore we must simply
accept it.  You are correct - there always has been and always
will be evil and violence, but I genuinely believe that we do
not, and should not accept it.

I encourage you over the next week to pay close attention to how
many negative, violent things you see and hear versus the
positive things  If the bad outweighs the good, try to think of
something you can persoanlly do to balance the score  Do not
worry about laws and all of scociety and how we should handle
"the bad guys" just yet  Simply be good to your parents and your
friends, and think of the things you would like to one day teach
your own children about how humans should behave  We cannot fix
all the problems of the world, but we can fix some problems
within our own families - which eventually affects the world 
Don't you agree?

(name)