"Eight people were killed and five wounded before the shooter ended the horror by taking his own life. He left behind a note that read, in part, "Now I'll be famous."

       We face a serious crossroads in the upbringing and formation of our future generations. When many of us were young, like all children, we emulated the famous and wealthy in our games of make believe. Some of us may have even fantasized about one day being in the spotlight. However, as the millenium came to a close, pop culture was once again distilled into a marketing campaign, designed specifically to target a newly discovered demographic: tweens. First the music became sugary sweet and unabashedly adult in its content and image.  With the growing popularity of Rap, R&B and Hip Hop, soon Pop music and these other genres would merge, boiling down the most reprehensible aspects of both. The accessability  and sheer sexuality of pop copulated shamelessly  with the overly materialistic  attitudes and sexual objectification, not to mention the commonplace violence of "urban" music. Movies and television have done their fair share of promoting these attitudes, especially channels such as MTV, VH1 and BET. MTV's limited vidoe clip rotation has been constrained to over the top rap videos that show all the kiddies how easy it is to throw wads of cash around while you lean on the side  of a sports car looking hard. The other programming is a mangled train wreck of spoiled, filthy rich teens that have never worked for a thing in their lives (My Super Sweet 16, Laguna Beach etc. etc.) or vapid, shallow meatheads and whores( Road Rules vs Real world, and a variety of "dating" shows). The message seems to be clear: money, fame, privelege, at any cost, just so long as you don't have to break a fucking sweat. The quintessential Empress of this phenomenon? Of course it's Paris Hilton. Celebrity for celebrity's sake. She has done nothing but be born, exist, dress expensively, pose pretty for the camera, do a monumental amount of drugs (sometimes on camera) and spread her legs for anyone and anything. And this is what our future is. There is a lyric from a song by Queens of the Stone Age called "I'm Designer"  that encapsulates the zeitgeist of the USA : 
"The thing that's real to us is fortune and fame
All the rest seems like work
It's just like diamonds, in shit"
                I'm not just placing the blame on popular culture or assigning surrogate parenthood to television and music. But for Christ's sake, give the kids a fighting chance. Most people barely raise thier kids as it is and rely on the media to babysit. We can't even be bothered to interract with our children in the car.......now we have mini vans with virtual home theaters, just to keep the kids distracted, quiet, placated. I don't know what the answer is, but I know something needs to change, and soon. This emphasis on celebrity needs to stop. Maybe we all need to step back and examine why we find these people so fascinating. Are they direct reflections of our own inadequecies, a justifaction for being imperfect? Is it satisfying to see what is percieved as royalty fall apart time and again?  Or is it a bright shiny thing dangled in front of us to distract us from the attrocities that plague our country, our planet? Is it a soothing ointment that makes life palatable while our jobs consume more and more of our lives, longer hours, less pay, no benefits, no vacation or sick days? All for that sweet two hours of oblivion while little Johnny is sharpening his machette and Suzy cleans the muzzle of her rifle...............