What is to Blame?

Written by Adam Braden


On April 20th, 1999, two students entered their high school armed with guns, bombs, and one objective: to kill. They began their rampage inrepparttar hallways killing one teacher and two students and continued torepparttar 132614 library where they ended their massacre withrepparttar 132615 murders of ten more students and their own collective suicides. To this day,repparttar 132616 real motive behindrepparttar 132617 crimes has yet to be determined, however, initial speculations pointed to music in particular. It wasn't until much later thatrepparttar 132618 students' backgrounds and living environments were investigated, which is a very concerning fact. So much emphasis was placed on one subject that it overshadowedrepparttar 132619 logical sources ofrepparttar 132620 crime.

Music alone is not to blame forrepparttar 132621 shootings and violence in America's schools. Other factors such as politics, living environment, andrepparttar 132622 criminal's background play a much larger role inrepparttar 132623 lives ofrepparttar 132624 students than music and to putrepparttar 132625 spotlight directly on it is illogical.

Violence in schools is a topic that is widely debated in Congress and other political arenas. Congressman often speack ofrepparttar 132626 "cruel" and "harsh" lyrics of today's music and how it plays out inrepparttar 132627 lives ofrepparttar 132628 listeners. They cite such acts as Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Eminem, and other artists asrepparttar 132629 cause for many violent acts, whether it's murder, suicide, rape, kidnapping, or burglary. Whatrepparttar 132630 politicians don't understand is that by concentrating on music so much, they are giving teenagers an excuse to commit these heinous crimes. The way politicians treatrepparttar 132631 issue is that all a child or a teenager has to do is listen torepparttar 132632 lyrics of an explicit song and violence will become inevitable. Most of these lyrics are representative ofrepparttar 132633 artist's way of life. What they don't understand is that vulgar music is notrepparttar 132634 problem. It is a symptom of a problem much larger. It's notrepparttar 132635 catalyst ofrepparttar 132636 crimes committed; it'srepparttar 132637 outlet for artists who have been involved in or witnessed those types of crimes. The purpose ofrepparttar 132638 music is not to promoterepparttar 132639 violence but to informrepparttar 132640 public of these atrocities. Being a musician, I know thatrepparttar 132641 music has emotional ties in an artist's life, which they choose to express to a new community of listeners. However,repparttar 132642 true meaning behindrepparttar 132643 song is lost in politics. The music doesn't push a person to commit a crime. Whatrepparttar 132644 politicians fail to notice isrepparttar 132645 conditions under whichrepparttar 132646 suspect is living andrepparttar 132647 other factors that contribute torepparttar 132648 violent behavior. A teenager's living environment is a major contributor to violence among juveniles. Every school has at least one person that is considered a "bully"; more often, though, it is more than just one person. Different "cliques" conduct social wars in a sense, which lead to face-value judgements and hateful verbal exchanges. For instance, a kid wears a Marilyn Manson shirt to school, and one of his peers in an opposing social group begins to mock him for it. The kid comes backrepparttar 132649 next day and shoots him, did music causerepparttar 132650 violence or didrepparttar 132651 mocking? Neither can justifyrepparttar 132652 teen's actions, but was music reallyrepparttar 132653 greatest contributing factor inrepparttar 132654 shooting? Additionally, inrepparttar 132655 Columbine shooting,repparttar 132656 two students were described as being social outcasts that were ridiculed and joked about by their fellow students more so because ofrepparttar 132657 lifestyle they lived thanrepparttar 132658 type of music they listened to. However,repparttar 132659 mockery of their peers was not part ofrepparttar 132660 blame, it wasrepparttar 132661 music that stolerepparttar 132662 limelight. Because they listened to Rammstein and Manson,repparttar 132663 public stressed that their lyrics causedrepparttar 132664 outrage, notrepparttar 132665 scorn of their classmates. Therefore, although music was involved in an indirect way, it was notrepparttar 132666 main motive forrepparttar 132667 crime.

Are you ready to listen - let’s talk?

Written by Joseph Ghabi


Are you ready to listen - let’s talk?

Really can someone tell me: Where are we going as a human race? What do you think? Take a moment out of your busy day and try to reflect on that very small question that we always try to avoid. What am I doing with my life as an individual?

We live in a society that is becoming increasingly built up on emptiness, vagueness, superficiality and jealousy. At one point it will be just like putting a needle in that inflated balloon and we will all explode. Either everyone is blind, or just playing dumb, or maybe I, myself, am from another planet! You figure it out!!!

I do hope someone hasrepparttar guts to pick uprepparttar 132612 pieces when things do explode. I understand your frustration. “I can’t do anything”, or “I can’t help”, is what most of us will say. But sitting crossed legged and armed is NOTrepparttar 132613 answer either.

In my opinion, my generation, and I am just 40 years old, seems to have given up. Perhaps yes, perhaps no! You can berepparttar 132614 judge. Many of us are still dwelling on events that happened to us at a young age. We try to help ourselves, but sometimes scars are deep inside of us and it is hard to accept and forgive, and just let go in order to move on. Live your life inrepparttar 132615 present moment and to your full potential. Life is complicated enough as it is. Really think and be honest about it! I’d hate to believe that our generation has just given up. It just shouldn’t berepparttar 132616 case. I do believe that our society is going backwards. Our religions are becoming obsolete and are not adapting to changes in our society. They are afraid that they are going to lose credibility inrepparttar 132617 process. By sitting onrepparttar 132618 sidelines, they ARE going to lose credibility for not having taken action. Every time someone mentions any religion to me, all I feel or envision are wars, control over their own congregation, limitations onrepparttar 132619 human soul, and their EGO. Religions should work forrepparttar 132620 people and I find that this is no longerrepparttar 132621 case.

How about our government? Show me one government that is really HONEST and that is working forrepparttar 132622 benefit ofrepparttar 132623 human race and not for its own individual political interests. Nowrepparttar 132624 new wave is large corporations starting to show their true colors by makingrepparttar 132625 lives of their employees and shareholders miserable, withrepparttar 132626 latest stock market scams and a diversion fromrepparttar 132627 true facts. We will then start seeing a shift from scams andrepparttar 132628 economy to talk of wars. Atrepparttar 132629 endrepparttar 132630 rich stay rich andrepparttar 132631 rest GOD will bless them.

It is funny, and what fascinates me about our politicians is one thing. They take part in helping destroying lives and families and separating children from their families. A decision to go and destroy a country or create a war, just many times for personal gain or any hidden agenda and then inrepparttar 132632 next minute you will see them holding a bible in one hand and their wife’s hand inrepparttar 132633 other. They are followed by their children on their way to church to pray, and forrepparttar 132634 press to see. Pray for what! Forgiveness, or showing off as good guys underrepparttar 132635 umbrella ofrepparttar 132636 Free World orrepparttar 132637 Capitalistic world. I bet you that deep inside that politician he or she will feel a deep, but vague, sense of emptiness regardless of how much money or prestige that they have. They must have an overwhelming EGO.

Well, my friends that is all wrong! Confessing or talking to your priest is NOT going to provide you with forgiveness you as much as your own Soul will! Some of you might say I don’t believe in all of this crap you call Soul. I’ll just leave that here for now, but I’ll get back to that subject another time and I’ll make my point clearer.

As we may have already discovered, our society is lead by governments, and religious leaders. We as humankind have been regressing for many years. Now with all ofrepparttar 132638 technological nonsense we now have we are still not doing anything to change it. For you and I to make any sense out of this, let’s go back torepparttar 132639 foundation of things. Are you ready to listen, if so let’s talk?

You might have enough baggage or scars from your own experiences so that you become numb and care less about what is going on around you. In my opinion, you can make allrepparttar 132640 difference inrepparttar 132641 world. Just stand up and start to care about yourself first, and then forrepparttar 132642 Human Souls in your surroundings. Things have to start somewhere, which begins with YOU and ME as individuals. When we aren’t doing anything about our own circumstances, andrepparttar 132643 environment, then nothing is going to change. Don’t get me wrong here. Don’t protest and brake windows and hurt each other because that’s notrepparttar 132644 answer either. When you do not love yourself, and then do not expect anyone to love you. Start by treating people around you as Souls and NOT as a nationality, ethnic group or part of some kind of a status structure.

De-program what you had been taught all these years, and how we have been known to label people. We just need to start seeing people as people, seeing people as Souls, seeing people as Human Beings. They are just like you and I, just Souls in a human body regardless what we see onrepparttar 132645 outer layer of their body. We must STOP labeling each other in order to start to seerepparttar 132646 bigger picture, which is to work towards a new understanding of life and a better way to function together. When we accomplish this, then we will start to understand our life, our purpose in it, and what role we play as a Soul inrepparttar 132647 bigger picture we can our life evolution.

Regardless of your religious background, your culture, orrepparttar 132648 color of your skin, you were told many things according to rules and regulations that were set into place. May I remind you that many, if not all, of these regulations were made by man? I do not believe any ofrepparttar 132649 prophecies that came into this plane to wake those souls atrepparttar 132650 time of their arrival to this plane were meant to promote hate, prejudice, labeling, and anger. They all came with a common message of love, peace and compassion. What Man seems to think isrepparttar 132651 right way, or what should really work in our present world, isn’t consistent with this message. Change is desperately needed and has to be started by us. You and me!

Life can be very simple. We are a species that knows best on how to complicate issues for capital gain. Generation, after generation, come and go and always seem to leave us with some new misery, hate, frustration, anger. We keep passing those negative qualities torepparttar 132652 next generation. This is unfortunate but it is a fact of life. Please correct me if I am wrong. I might be stupid, but I am not blind. I see what’s around me, even with my eyes closed. All our technology is worth nothing, if our values in life have no value in our mind. Our respect of another human Soul seemingly has no respect to that Soul unless it belongs torepparttar 132653 same religious group or its community. But even inside this group or religion we can see envy, jealousy, talking behind each other’s back, and being two faced about it.

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