HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-06-23, Page 5Arthur Black
By Bonnie Gropp
The
Short
of it
Our kids
deserve better
Television
proves people
will look
at anything
Imagine what it would be like if TV were
actually good. It would be the end of
everything we know.
Marvin Minksy
An American media executive with the
unfortunate handle of Newton Minow
Esquire once defined North American
television as "a vast wasteland."
Mister Minow may have been moniker-
challenged but philosophically he was bang
on the money. If you doubt it, go to the only
one-eyed piece of furniture in the corner of
your living room on any weekday afternoon
and turn it on.
You will be rewarded with badly acted
soap operas, huffing and puffing airheads in
spandex workout suits and a plethora of talk
shows hosted by mike-toting hosts
examining the problems of Transvestite
Bank Tellers from Broken Homes and Their
A coat
of many
colours
More often than I care to admit I get asked
questions about the state of religion in this or
that country. I have learned from many years
of experience never to get involved in a
discussion involving theology, given the
very subjective nature of the topic, and for
this reason, if I have to make any comments
on it, they are normally along the following
lines. I hope by the end of the article you
will see the point I am trying to make and it
may go a long way toward answering the
question mentioned above.
When I lived in Italy, it was for the
purpose of going to school to improve my
knowledge of Italian and to increase my
acquaintance of things Italian, especially of a
cultural nature. For reasons which are too
long to go into at this point, I lived with a
priest and his two sisters. They were aware
of my religious background and, because I
was going with a Swiss Catholic girl at the
time, did their best to make me see the
advantages of the Catholic faith. I would not
have expected otherwise, but in all our
discussions, and there were many, they
never degenerated into anything approaching
acrimony. At the same time they looked
after me like a mother hen does her chickens
and seemed to anticipate all my needs before
I realized I had them. Even when I
discovered a Waldesian Church (a Protestant
sect which predates Luther) they always got
my meal ready so that I would not be late for
any service. When it came time for me to go,
we all had a good cry. I shall never forget
them.
When a friend and I were in Leningrad
years later, we decided to go to a Protestant
church and discovered that about the only
Pets.
Or you could flip up the dial until you hit
The Weather Channel.
The Weather Channel. Think about it for a
moment. Do you think Newton Minow
would ever have believed that some day
television would feature a channel devoted
to nothing but weather reports 24 hours a
day?
What's really scary is that the Weather
Channel is often the best thing on the box.
Not counting the Shopping Channel, of
course. Now there's a magnificent milestone
in broadcasting history — a channel that
features still photographs of Elvis paintings,
chia plants and phoney-looking necklaces
made of cubic zirconium.
And they're all for sale.
That's not all. The National Cable
Association down in the U.S. is offering a
whole raft of new video services next year —
including a channel called ATV. That stands
for Advertising Television. It features an
endless reel of five to 10-minute
commercials, one after another.
Twenty-four hours a day.
Who watches this crap?
Well, it's hard to say exactly just who the
hard core TV addicts are out there, being
mesmerized by the tube, but we know a few
things about that gaping maw called The
Television Audience.
We know for instance, that you don't want
one there was a Baptist one. Off we went
with our guide (who was a confessed atheist)
and we were treated to the reception of our
lives. After the service, a truly touching one,
was over, we were invited to stay for a
wedding. Imagine two complete strangers
being invited to a wedding in Canada.
At any rate we accepted with alacrity and
the ceremony itself proved to be the second
moving experience of the day. When it came
time to leave, we said good-bye Using the
old Russian expression "sbogom" (Go with
God) and again I don't think there was a dry
eye anywhere.
Incidentally, for any Baptist readers, I was
informed that there are more Baptists in
Russia than there are in Canada. Remember
that this was during the days before the
collapse of Communism when you didn't
even have to have a church wedding if you
did not want to.
The coldest service I have ever been at
was in Klagenfurt in Austria during the time
of the military occupation after World War
II. I struck up a conversation with a military
chaplain who, when he learned I was on my
way to Yugoslavia to do a series of articles
on Communism, invited me to attend church
before my train left. Since I had nothing else
to do I accepted and arrived at a small
chapel, to discover a few soldiers and
civilians all huddled around in heavy
clothing. It was freezing and there was
absolutely no heat. I don't think I have ever
heard more spirited singing. I think that, in
retrospect, we sang twice as loud just to keep
warm. The minister said a prayer for me; I
was of the opinion that he, along with the
rest of the small group, was convinced that I
needed all the prayers I could get if I were
going off into such an atheistic, communist
country such as Yugoslavia. Maybe they
helped: I did survive in spite of a few
incidents but that is another story.
I think that you can now understand that
Christianity has for me something of a
universal nature and not something
associated with one church. While I am a
member of the United Church and have
served on more committees in my own
church than I care to remember, labels do
not mean too much to me.
During the years that I lived or visited in
St. Gallen, Switzerland as often as not I went
to the Catholic church just opposite our
house. When I am elsewhere in the country I
attend a Reformed Church, while in
Germany it is a Lutheran church that sees
the majority of my visits. Even the Baptists
have been known to welcome me as was the
case I related about Russia. In short God
manifests himself regardless of
denomination or country.
I would, then, tend to agree with the well
known theologian, Paul Tillich, when he
speaks of the "God beyond God." I suppose
that each one of us, regardless of our
denomination, has a concept of God which is
at best limited by our ability to conceive of
a superior being. Beyond that limited scope
is the real God which transcends all our
ability to comprehend him.
However, at this point it appears that I am,
in spite of my best intentions, getting into
the realm of theology and I had better quit
while I am ahead. Canonical interpretations
are not something accepted by everybody.
Letter to the editor
Continued from page 4
Unfortunately, the latest move by the NDP
government, was to introduce into the
legislature last week the Expenditure Control
Plan Statute Law Amendment Act. If
enacted, this law would give politicians the
power to dictate when, why, where and how
patients get treated.
It is important to tell government that the
co-operative planning that led to sensible
solutions only a short time ago, must be
restarted rather than continuing the current
management by chaos. It is the least the
citizens of Huron County deserve.
Patrick Conlon, MD
President, Huron County
Medical Society.
Well, another year of school ends this
week and as I travel from graduation to
graduation taking pictures I look at the
young faces and think, "Another year older
and another year wiser."
Perhaps, but while I'm certain about the
first, I have my share of misgivings
regarding the latter.
There is an uproar these days about
whether or not our children are receiving the
education they need. With emphasis taken
off the three R's (that's reading, writing and
arithmetic, for anyone who's forgotten) and
placed more on life skills, behaviour and
team work, parents I've spoken with are
distressed by their children's inability to
spell and read at the level they should.
The lessons life teaches us are invaluable,
thus hands-on learning and group work have
been stressed. But in trying to improve, was
it necessary to place so little value on the
fundamentals?
Studies have shown that many high school
and university students today are reading
and writing at an elementary level. I can't
believe that was the case in the past. When I
was in school there were weekly spelling
bees, frequent book reviews and through
healthy competition, a strong desire to
improve.
Certainly, the methods used in the past to
instill the knowledge were often
questionable. My mother is a walking
calculator. She can add a line of numbers as
swiftly as Rickey Henderson can steal
second. She learned because a pointer across
the knuckles for each wrong answer made
learning very important to her.
Education has had to change with the
times, but with the transition there are cracks
that our children are falling through. Many
teachers may have difficulty adjusting to the
newer methods of teaching. I remember
speaking to a teacher friend of mine,
regarding the novel new approach to spelling
— spell it how you want to. She noted that
while many teachers had adopted the
creative spelling notion, they weren't
following up on it to see if the student ever
learned the proper spelling.
While some teachers steadfastly hang onto
the traditional methods of education, the
others have moved on. Therefore, whereas
our children may have a teacher who focuses
on innovative teaching methods, the
following year they may be confronted by a
teacher annoyed with them that they can't
spell.
In grade seven I was in a split class. Our
teacher taught us grade seven work and
while we completed an assignment he
worked with the grade eights. If we absorbed
some of what they were learning fine; if not
we were ready to learn it next year having
covered the grade seven curriculum.
Unfortunately, that is not what I see
happening today and I have a front row seat.
My two youngest, have been in different
grades of a split class for two years. They
often bring home the same books, do the
same work, take the same tests and get
marked in the same manner. I can't help
feeling as if one of them is missing out
somewhere.
Though it might not sound like it, I'm not
really blaming the teachers either — at least
not all of them. They've been given a whole
new set of rules. They wear a number of
hats, from diplomat to referee, and the good
ones make the switch often with their hands
ticd.
But, there is a problem and I think we
need to fix it. Our kids deserve better.
to get them riled. Last summer a cable-T.V.
company in Columbia, South Carolina
stationed a TV camera on a tropical fish tank
and broadcast the resulting 'drama' on an
otherwise empty channel. When they finally
replaced the static aquarium shot with some
actual network programming, outraged
viewers lit up the cable TV telephone
switchboard, angrily demanding the return
of the fish tank.
They won. The company now broadcasts
the aquarium on another channel non-stop,
from nine in the morning to midnight.
And it looks like television is poised to
take an even bigger bite out of our time.
What's the title of that old Springsteen song
— "Fifty-seven Channels and Nothing's On"?
Make it 160 channels.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to
introduce you to Deathstar. It's the slang
name for a Los Angeles-based news service
and entertainment package that will soon be
targeting all North American televisions
with 160 channels.
You know that humongous satellite dish
your uncle shelled out a couple of grand for
last year? Tell him he now owns one of the
world's biggest bird baths. Deathstar offers
its clients a rooftop dish no bigger than a
large pizza.
Ann Landers said it best: "Television has
proved that people will look at anything
rather than each other."
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