Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Where has our sense of shock gone?

Ruthe Deskin is assistant to the publisher. Her column appears Thursdays. Reach her at [email protected].

Have Americans finally become so desensitized that we are shocked by nothing?

The young editor of the Mason Valley News in Yerington asked that question in a recent column.

David Sanford's observations on the subject deserve repetition if only to stir some reaction on the part of many older citizens who have become apathetic in defending the ideals upon which we were raised.

Tom Brokaw called our generation the greatest. Perhaps now is the time to prove it by speaking out against moral decay and violence. Family values, religion, the Golden Rule, honesty, compassion, integrity and decency are all works that need to come back into our vocabulary. Our children need better role models than Dennis Rodman, Hugh Hefner, Mike Tyson, rappers and heavy metal musicians. It is time for the silent majority to speak.

Sanford points to the recent sexual assaults that occurred in New York's Central Park during a Puerto Rican Day celebration; the rampaging and destruction of property that occurred after the Lakers won the NBA championship; and the recent double murder of a young mother-to-be and her unborn child. The list of atrocities could go on and on and might be illustrated by the remark of an elderly journalist who noted that murders once made the front pages of the newspaper. Now you find them in the briefs.

Sanford comments further:

"Gone, by and large though, is the shock value ... It appears this nation has become so used to seeing and hearing about these things that we are no longer shocked. Saddened, sickened, angry, even afraid, yes. But stunned or surprised? Not any more.

"Are we wrong or is there an inherent danger in our nation that becomes so desensitized that events like a woman being charged with taking a young girl's unborn baby from her womb no longer shock us?

"How many guys do you suppose stood up in the midst of the absolute mayhem in Central Park and said it was wrong to strip, grope and/or assault those women who were unfortunate enough simply to venture into the park that day? Yes, we become outraged when these things happen, but that outrage, anymore, has no staying power because we are not shocked by what is happening.

"Part of becoming indignant in the face of these events is that your sensibilities are so assaulted -- that the event that happens is so unfathomable and unconscionable -- that you vow never to let it happen again. It is when society begins to let its indignation slide that it begins its own incremental slide into moral decay. Then it is only a matter of time before there are no lines at all."

I am convinced that most of the citizens of our nation are decent, moral, law-abiding human beings eager to live lives of contentment away from the meanness and horrors that stalk our society. But the time comes when their way of life can be threatened unless they are willing to stand up and fight for their ideals by speaking out against the crime, violence and sin that could destroy us.

We are truly at a crossroads when less attention is paid to getting guns and knives out of our schools and we focus on eliminating prayer.

Think about it.

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