The cold, hard truth is Americans are not ready to steer its own culture forward. For a dramatic and meaningful culture change, Americans would have to endure a Virginia Tech shooting everyday, or a Presidential assassination every four years.
Paris Hilton leads the CBS Radio newscast Friday night at 11pm Eastern. ABC News Investigator Brian Ross leads 20/20 with a profile on a DC madam. An SUV at a red light proudly displays a license plate with the slogan "Support Our Troops." Flags fly at half-mast for 32 murder victims in Virginia. No such honor for 3300 Americans killed in Iraq. Gas surpasses $3 again.
Welcome to America in 2007. Are you conflicted by all this? Or does this sound fine to you?
No sooner were students killed by a mentally ill classmate that Americans show sorrow and debate gun control. Most Americans are resigned to the fact that the National Rifle Association owns the issue and lawmakers will never ban handguns. That's no surprise.
What is surprising is our lack of commitment to connect the dots and do something better. First, we live in a country where more than one President was gunned down in public. But today we have more guns than ever. Second, the framers of our Constitution spelled out "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." But we were a new country then, and even though the Constitution was signed in 1787, and the Bill of Rights added in 1791, most Americans don't realize we were still fighting the Revolutionary War against Britain after 1776. Of course we needed guns back then.
The cold, hard truth is Americans are not ready to steer its own culture forward. Virginia Tech, Presidential assassinations and a 234 year old Amendment haven't motivated us. For a dramatic and meaningful culture change, Americans would have to endure a Virginia Tech shooting everyday, or a Presidential assassination every four years.
Is it a great culture when American deaths in Iraq haven't led to mass trade-in of SUVs in the states? Like guns, Americans feel like they have the "right to bear cars." No one is going to tell citizens what they can drive, where they can drive and how far they can drive it. But when gas prices surpass $3 a gallon, especially near a Patriotic "driving holiday" like Memorial Day, that's when gas guzzling freedom-lovers start talking about the cost to fill up. Boo-hoo. Dead soldiers doesn't motivate our culture to change. Only money does.
The media fuels this cultural disaster, spending time on Paris Hilton, a disturbed woman who is famous for just being famous. ABC News with all of its proud branding ("More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source") was just one of many mainstream news organizations to play dead when the world needed them most. Their slogan should be an apology- "We're sorry more of you watch this crap than any other source."
So where do we go as a culture? Who do we turn to for leadership? Politicians? We know what we'll get, don't we? Business? Vision must be longer than the next quarterly report. The media? The "gatekeepers" should have the keys taken away. For our culture to change, truly change, we need people indebted to no one, but indebted to everyone.
A lot is made of the word "sacrifice" especially in times of war. But no one is motivated to sacrifice while Wall Street hits new highs. We have to ask ourselves as a society, one society, big questions that a third grader could ask. "What if everyone drove a car the size they really need and not one they can afford?" What if. More questions that start with the words "what if" and see where the conversation goes.
"What if" people decided the culture, instead of it being force fed to them by politicians, business and the media?
What if? What if?