Talk of the Nation, ordinarily
Talk of the Nation, ordinarily an intelligent and mature NPR program, has now squeezed the last drop of media play out of September 11th (I’m not calling it 9-11. It’s an event, not an automobile).
This morning, there was a show on the decision to have children and raising them after September 11th. About 75% of the callers read NPR’s conceit as “It’s a scary world. Do we want to have kids?” and they were probably right. Most said they didn’t feel like they could give their offspring the “protected, ideal childhood” that they had and were worried about bringing another life into this world.
Horeshit. That’s what I think of this premise. Not only has the world never been safe (believe me, parents in the 11th century freaked out about raising kids in a world with gunpowder), but this question shamelessly panders to the affluent, white demographic drop zone of National Public Radio. I haven’t asked, but I didn’t hear any callers saying “I’m just worried about paying my bills” or “My kids have to duck gunfire on the way to school.” Plenty of people aren’t in cirumstances to have “ideal childhoods”, and are just trying to make it each day, world events notwithstanding. The idea that kids live in little aquariums and that a national tragedy can be seen as nothing more than pissing in the water is not only offensive, but bad parenting. The world has never been safe and the notion that it once was and was then stolen from us is about fear. Nothing more. It’s very possible for kids to still be kids. We just have to raise them to be smarter, faster than we did in the past, not less innocent, not weary, just smarter. It’s not easy but my guess is the result is a helluva lot healthier than hiding behind a nation’s pain with our eyes squeezed shut, hoping it will all go away.