The hidden streaker

How many of you remember back 20 or more years ago, when streaking for a time became a national fad? If you do, you will remember that briefly there seemed to be people "streaking" at just about any media event that could be seen on television. Well now we have a more dangerous type of media craving person in our society, and they are the ones who are killing us.

I had planned to write something funny or memorable for this article, then I watched the news coverage today from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I changed my mind. I visited Lancaster a little over four years ago, and actually we stayed overnight there. Ever since I read the book "Centennial" and also saw the mini series, I had wanted to see the town where the character Levi Zendt lived. I was not disappointed.

For miles in every direction from Lancaster you will see these well kept Amish farms.

All along the highways, one views hundreds of horse drawn vehicles that carry the Amish.

We were lucky. The morning we left Lancaster was on Sunday. Everywhere you went the families were dressed and headed to church in their buggies. We ate breakfast at a place called the "Amish Barn." The family style breakfast would have fed a small army.

Today as I watched the news coverage from Lancaster telling about this insane 32-year-old man who killed these defenseless young Amish girls, I was so stunned I could hardly grasp the enormity of it all. Suffice it to say, we all know this man is crazy. None of us need Dr. Phil or any other of the television psychso babblers to fill us in on this secret. No, he was crazy, and of that there is no doubt.

The questions in everyone's minds are the ones in mine, too.

What are we going to do to stop this kind of violence? Is there anything we can do? We all sort of feel helpless in a way. Schools are supposed to be the place we send our children to learn, play, and grow up, under the nurturing guidance of educators. It is not a place where we want to have sealed buildings with armed guards. Unfortunately, that is probably going to be one of our likely answers.

We already have law enforcement officers at many of our schools, but that is likely to increase in the future. We simply cannot take the chance.

There is no guarantee that with officers on duty, that there will not be dangerous people enter our schools, but we at least would have some more protection on hand. One should remember that this last case took place in a rural religious school with just a few students.

It's very isolation and lack of security made it an inviting target for this sicko! One answer may be to do something similar to what the networks did back in the "streaking days." It became national policy, that no streaker would ever be shown on air again. Originally the different news coverage's of the "streakers," would show them with the more sensitive body parts blurred in the video.

That did not work.

The final solution was to have no coverage of any "streaker" ever make it onto the screen.

You would be watching a game, and suddenly the picture would pan to the announcers.

They would inform the viewers that there was an incident taking place on the field. They would also tell the viewers that as was their policy, they would not show the person or persons involved.

Within seemingly no time at all, "streaking' became a non-fad. Without the notoriety, the "streakers" were simply going to jail as the only recognition of their act.

I don't know if a similar action on the part of television would do anything to help prevent these school tragedies or not, but I sure think it is worth a try.

Think about it. The minute there is a situation at a school anywhere in the country, the media is there in full force. Your screen has a flashing bright sign that says, "BREAKING NEWS."

Helicopter video of the scene is on the air within minutes. As soon as possible all the networks have the drama playing almost commercial free.

We are drawn to watch. Despite the horror, we watch and get our dose of true television reality. I think that is quite possibly part of the problem. Like "streakers," I am beginning to think that the lure of all the media coverage helps to set off some of these sick people.

We had had several similar incidents in the days leading up to this Amish school tragedy. It made me wonder if there was anything in the other incidents that helped trigger this individual.

If we made it a policy to not allow coverage of these crimes in real time would it make a difference? I don't have the answer, but like the "streaker" craze from above, I do think that when certain people who need attention are denied that attention, they act differently.

Not covering these terrible tragedies in real time may give us another bonus as well.

Sometimes I think we are becoming more like the Romans all the time. They had to have their "games." We all know how depraved and violent those shows were. The more violent they became, the more violent and terrible the expectations for future "games" became.

I for one am a total freedom of the press individual, but I am not sure that 24- hour real time news coverage of crazy killers, is not actually precipitating the problem.

Did any of you see the movie "Natural Born Killers?" Let's try not giving anymore coverage to these school killers than we did to the streakers of the late '70s.

Without a free show of their own depravity and death, maybe they wouldn't do it in the first place.