Dear Cedric,

Thank you for your insight. I do not base my views on TV shows, my views are soley those of one individual speaking of her particular observations, sharing them so we can learn from each other, in an imperfect world.

I am not sure what you mean about ’bomb’ in the suburbs ? The gentleman who was mudered on June 15 here was shot by a gun, 4 times. The killer was simply insane, apparently, ans we have an abundance of deranged individuals wandering around on this side of the Atlantic.

Although some try to generalize about the American experience, it is unwise to do so. The land is vast and so many different types of individuals live here that to generalize is to not comprehend their individual idiosyncracies. The big story is made of a thousand small ones, like life itself.

I understand your indignation at what you see as political manipulation. It happens in every country, and here it is a grotestque farce in technicolor.

We have all the vices and virtues to be found anywhere, without exception.

More interesting, is to harken back now to the original essay by M. Bilger who longs for tranquility, as we all do, in public spaces.

The lack of civility with regard to portables and cell phones is now well established, here, and abroad.

It remains for sociologists to conjecture how this further alienates us from each other.

No one imagined that with the advent of TV there would be a burst of consumerism, which of course wants to stimulate the sale of all these electronic devices.So long as commercial entities can make a profit, they will sell ’things". The shareholders do not cry for our lost tranquility.

But the TV also conveys false aspirations to the masses. They now aspire to quickly acquire the comforts of life which our parents worked generations to acquire. The idea of working hard and having the virtues of thrift and diligence is alien to them. Hence their immense rage when they view fellow citizens with expensive cars, clothes, homes, etc. They want it all NOW,- not later !

Add to this the availability of drugs and you have a recipe for ruining a young person’s life before it has really blossomed.

If we could remove the drugs, and limit the TV, it would be a start to helping the alienated children of the banlieus...(because this is what they are mentally,« children », whose growth has been retarded socially and spiritually.)

Perhaps if every or even middle class French man and woman ’adopted’ a child from the banlieue and spent one afternoon a week getting to know and help this child, a bridge could be built.

Maybe one of you on AgoraVox will propose this idea ? A new sort of social solution ?

Here we have clubs called Big Brother and also Big Sister. It is a sort of mentoring process, and it enriches the mentor and the child simultaneously.

So I challenge you at AgoraVox to write an essay and put this idea out there for citizens to talk about...would it not be ’formidable’ if every city and village started such programs ?

The first thing to happen is that the kid with the portable no longer seems a predator. He has a name. He has hopes and dreams, Maybe he has a father, maybe not...but there is a human being connected to that portable who probably hurts inside...and the noise of the portable extinguishes his pain for a few hours.

Do not wait for your political leaders to make one more program.

Do it your self.

Start today.

Then instead of complaining, one generation can help the next...one person at a time...one boy at a time..one girl at a time....

(By the way,There is a beautiful poem by an Irish poet, Yeats, called The Lake Isle of Innisfree. In it he speaks about his need for silence, and his emotion is similar to that of M. Bilger. Try to read it as it is heart warming.)

Also one of our early philosophers, Thoreau, wrote an essay called Walden Pond. In a similar vein, he longs for a quieter time.Perhaps you can read this also.

Why do we harken to earlier, quieter times ? So we can hear ourselves ’think’.

In today’s rushed and compressed times, man has lost his individual narrative.

Maybe, if he can find a quiet spot, he can retrieve it ?

I wish you the best, and I will be waiting to see if the bloggers at AgoraVox get up from their comfortable chairs, and go help a kid today !

Sincerely,

Claire