Violence

We all are saddened when we hear of a child murdered or victimized by violence. We are even more saddened when the perpetrators are also children. We ask ourselves, why are the children of today so violent? People blame the inner city, or poverty, or a single-parent household, or lack of a male role model or the easy access to guns. But that doesn't explain why violence affects suburban communities where both parents are present and the poverty does not exist. The primary factor is the attitude of adults toward violence.

There's something wrong with people who consider pornography, even as mild as Playboy, to be more conducive to violence than movies on television today. Even children can watch acts of violence any time of day. I doubt that reasonably sane adults well past their formative years will be brainwashed into committing sex crimes after prolonged exposure to sexually explicit material. After all, members of the Meese commission viewed a lot of pornography before releasing their report.

Simon Gratz High student Brian Samuels listens to Temple basketball coach John Chaney at a school assembly yesterday. Chaney and other local figures, such as former Eagle Mike Quick, school board president Rotan Lee, Cheyney basketball coach Keith Johnson and Wilmington, Del., Councilman Ted Blunt, came as part of Project PAVE, a program founded by community sports figure Sonny Hill and Schools Superintendent Dr. Constance Clayton to address growing...

George Washington sought solace and strength in pew 58 of Christ Church in Philadelphia as turbulence swirled through the newly born nation. He wasn't alone. Many of the landmark church's parishioners were the who's who of Colonial times. Benjamin Franklin. William Penn. Betsy Ross. They all worshiped at Christ Church on 2nd and Market streets. Now, on its 300th-year anniversary, the church celebrates its rich past. In keeping with its history of civic involvement, the church will celebrate with a three-day conference that examines how the religious community can end violence in the world, this country and its cities.

Americans are much more concerned about violence than the ailing economy, according to a poll conducted last month. In a random survey of 1,000 adults nationwide, 77 percent said they worry about raising a family because violence would make them fear for their children's safety. That compares with 68 percent who worry over the economy. "This is about the fabric of our society falling apart. Who wants to live in a world where everyone is getting hurt?" asked Ethel Klein, president of EDK Associates, a New York firm that conducts polls on social issues.

LIFE IN CAMDEN WINNING ESSAY Violence in Camden is a bitch. You can't even walk to the store without seeing someone getting killed or hurt. Another name for Camden should be "hellraisers. " It's a damn shame how kids have to grow up around here. Since I've been living in Camden I have known many innocent children who have been killed or hurt. Some as a result of crossfires or accidents or gang shootouts. Once I even saw a "crackhead" get murdered just because he took some change to a corner drug dealer.

A new summer camp will offer a week of fun and lessons in life for up to 200 children who have been traumatized by violence, area civic and business leaders announced yesterday. The Save the Children Summer Camp Fund was established to respond to the rash of violence against Philadelphia youths and to nurture victims of violence, Philadelphia NAACP president J. Whyatt Mondesire said yesterday. The program's sponsors hope to raise between $100,000 and $150,000, so that as many as 200 children can go to camp.

Halloween is our only national day honoring horror. In fact, it locks real horror away for a day, substituting fantasies and the sanitized horror of make-believe monsters. But real horrors abound that are not fun, and Halloween gives us a chance to reflect on the greatest of them - violence. Why are people so violent, often killing each other for little or no reason? According to the latest scientific evidence, one's psychological make-up is a signficant contributing factor, pinning the responsibility for some of our criminal violence on individual alienation and one's personal penchant for risk-taking.

Within the last few weeks, a bomb exploded in Manhattan's World Trade Center, an armed religious cult in Waco, Tex., killed federal law officers and a doctor was murdered as he entered the back door of a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic. Such violence may prove to be the last straw for a terrified, fed-up public. Right now, we could be at a tipping point, when public opinion concerning violent behavior is beginning to shift. Enough of us are angered by daily mayhem and frustrated by the glorification of violence in the media.

Steve Chapman is a Chicago Tribune columnist If you take a look at mass media aimed at teenagers, you start to see a pattern. What topic suffuses teenage prime-time dramas? Sex. Movies aimed at high school boys? Violence. Music popular among the SAT-taking crowd? Sex and violence. You have noticed, and the scholars at the medical journal Pediatrics have noticed. They have unveiled two new studies that confirm what we all know: The youths most exposed to sex and violence are the ones most likely to participate in sex and violence.