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Russ Smith and Ellen Willis

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from: Ellen Willis

America's Fear of Teen-agers

Posted Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1999, at 2:21 PM ET

This is my summer schedule, which is basically no schedule at all ... my daughter, who's 15, is away at camp; the two of us are rattling around the house with no classes, meetings, etc., to worry about ... closest thing to nirvana except for places like the McDowell Colony, where they give you meals and bring lunch to your studio door.

On Columbine, before I forget: I don't, in general, buy as a sufficient explanation for media obsessions that "it's all about ratings and selling papers," for two reasons. First, because you have to ask why huge numbers of people are so interested that they watch the TV shows and buy the papers. And second, because the money explanation assumes a detached cynicism--or a totally mechanical subservience to their bosses' interests--on the part of the reporters, editors, producers, etc., who are responsible for the actual coverage, when in fact journalists are caught up in the same fears and fantasies as their audience. As I see it, Columbine hit more of a cultural chord than the Atlanta murders because Americans are in turmoil about children and teen-agers: On the one hand, everyone's political agenda is rationalized as protecting children, whether it's censorship and drug testing or welfare and gun control; on the other, adults are fearful of young people, feel that they're out of control, and at the same time guilty about the many ways kids are being shortchanged in this enormously pressured, work-obsessed, and uptight environment.

Speaking of drug testing, according to today's Times, the ACLU has taken on the case of high-school kids in a "small rural town" in Oklahoma who are forced to take urine tests if they want to participate in extracurricular activities or take the classes that are, in some cases, connected with these activities. Aside from the travesty against the Fourth Amendment, this is just another example of the paranoia and contempt aimed at teen-agers. Treat them all like presumptive criminals who deserve no autonomy and respect, and then wonder why some actually fulfill your expectations.

On the hate-crime issue, it's true you can't execute someone twice; but most such crimes are assault or rape or lesser degrees of homicide--not capital crimes. For the record, I'm basically against the death penalty on the grounds that its application is discriminatory, mistaken executions of innocent people are inevitable, keeping people on death row for years during the appeal process amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, yet limiting appeals is even worse, there's no evidence that executions have any practical deterrent effect, and emotional catharsis is not a good enough reason for the state to kill people. But I'm not an absolutist on the subject. For instance, there's a legitimate question to be raised about what you do about someone who's already serving life without parole who kills an inmate or guard; how to deter a murderer who shoots the cop trying to arrest him, figuring he has nothing to lose; and other such situations. And then there's the issue of whether politically motivated mass murder, like the Oklahoma City bombing, should be in a special category. Which leads back to the issue of why we ought to create a special category for what I'm calling intimidation or political terrorism: because these crimes are more deleterious to the social fabric than ordinary crimes. I disagree with you about Matthew Shepard. I believe it was a lynching. Those guys were out to teach him--and by extension all gay men--a lesson.

This is already too long, so later for Maureen Dowd. What do you think of the Village Voice redesign? And what's the NYPress in-house culture like?

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819
from: Ellen Willis

America's Fear of Teen-agers

Posted Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1999, at 2:21 PM ET
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Russ Smith is the editor in chief and owner of New York Press, the Manhattan weekly he founded in 1988. He writes the column "Mugger" for the paper. Ellen Willis directs the cultural journalism program at New York University. Her latest book, Don't Think, Smile! Notes on a Decade of Denial will be published this fall.
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