Can you think of anything more beautiful than a child? In our society today, a child who is happy and healthy emotionally is a very precious thing. The rise of child abuse is alarming and disgusting - the grossest kind of which is sexual abuse.
These children are not suffering by chance. Obscenity and pornography are key sores in our society that are hurting our children. And the effects are permanent. Even elementary school counselors are trying to help children who are suicidal as a result of the abuse they have suffered."A man is as he thinks." The violence and obscenity that our society is exposed to must have an effect on the people. We become what we are exposed to, and people expose themselves to movies, television, music and magazines that repeatedly stress violence, pornography and degradation. There has even been sexual abuse of children on the screen.
Of course, we have the choice to turn off the TV, to go to a different movie, to keep our own minds in a better place. But what about those who eat up all the smut society has to offer? They are the ones with filthy minds, so why should we care? They've made their choice, and we can make ours.
But what choice do the children have? They are the innocent victims of the propaganda that controls the thoughts and brings up the dark sides of those who partake.
Even parents can lose control when they aren't careful what they fill their minds with - when they aren't careful of what society is making them.
We need a stronger decency code. We need to encourage laws against obscenity. Although our right to freedom of speech is a precious one, it is being abused and distorted. The good of society must always be respected, and using "freedom of speech" has gone too far.
The courts have pushed back laws regarding obscenity in Utah, and the California Legislature recently rejected a decency code. Not having a law against something is the same as having a law for it, and we must destroy that law and make a new one because there is a gross injustice against the children.
We are "agents" of that injustice when we support companies that put out the things that contain degrading ideas and scenes. We support then by being the consumers. We are also agents of injustice when we allow things like that to be available for others - leaving innocent children unsafe.
Christy Cook
Murray High School