Friday, September 11, 2009
"Free-range children"
This article conveys thoughts similar to mine.
Our current fear-based society is over-hyped by a media that exploits every piece of bad news.
We must use due diligence to determine the FACTS, and NOT be afraid of every little thing...
Our current fear-based society is over-hyped by a media that exploits every piece of bad news.
We must use due diligence to determine the FACTS, and NOT be afraid of every little thing...
Lenore Skenazy writes in the Tribune newspapers:
"Nationally, according to U.S. Department of Justice figures, we are back to the crime rate of 1970. In the '70s and '80s, the crime rate rose.
It peaked around 1993 and has been going down ever since, dramatically. So if you played outside any time in the '70s or '80s, your kids are actually safer than you were.
How come it feels just the opposite? When our parents were raising us, they were watching 'Dallas' and 'Dynasty.' The biggest crime was big hair. Today's parents are watching 'Law & Order' and 'CSI,' shows overflowing with predators, rapists and maggots. TV has gotten so gross and so graphic, 'I don't think there's a single episode of 'Law & Order' that could even have been shown before 1981,' says TV historian Robert Thompson.
Those scary shows -- coupled with cable stations running off to Aruba or Portugal every time a white girl disappears -- make us feel as if kids are being abducted 24/7. But the truth is: If, for some strange reason, you actually WANTED your child to be abducted by a stranger, do you know how long you would have to keep her outside, unattended, for this to be statistically likely to happen?
Guess.
Now guess again."
