Cougar Cry
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On Entertainment Today
By Scott Curnow
Edited for graphic material content;
It seems everywhere I go I hear people talking
about the excessive violence and explicit sexual content
of entertainment in today's western culture. Is this true?
Have we as a society desensitized ourselves and de
graded our moral standards in recent times? Hardly,
some of us just chose to remember the past through
blinders, much like those of a nervous horse, so that we
only see what directly affects us in the present. If any
thing, we only need to look at history to see some im
provement in entertainment today.
In Roman times it was a spectator sport for the
whole family to go down to the coliseum to watch gladia
tors fight, or better still, to watch wild animals chewing
on Christians that would not honor the emperor as a
god. Some of the ancient Roman cults even encouraged
drunkenness and fornication in the practice of their relig
ion. We must keep in mind that Roman culture is con
sidered by most historians and laymen alike to be one of
the most socially advanced civilizations in the history of
the earth. Was their behavior proper, even by their own
standards, for a society that was considered cultured
and educated?
How about the Crusades? It seems that for a
while, during the Middle Ages, only one form of religion
was correct, depending on which one you believed in.
So in the ultimate blasphemy, Christians killed each
other and Muslims, among others, in large numbers,
rather than tolerate the beliefs of their neighbors. In my
somewhat limited understanding of history, this seems
to have been a form of land gathering, profiteering, and
also entertainment mainly for the Catholic Church and
its subjects. They justified this form of entertainment
through many of the same tactics used today to support
the opinion of the Church. "We are right, they are wrong
and will burn in hell for it!" Perhaps the world would fair
better in pagan hands in the future.
What about the cruet, public torture and execu
tions, most often hangings, that were public throughout
much of America's history? The private citizens were
asked by law enforcement to form a "posse" to hunt
down suspected criminals. These individuals were de
nied rights and beaten, among other things, as recently
as the last century. If that constitutes equal rights for all
men, it doesn't sound too appealing to me. Slaves were
also mistreated and most likely used for some perverse
form of entertainment throughout the history of the
world. I'm quite certain there was more than one
overzealous sadist that took pleasure in being cruel and
inhuman. Thus making some of them a form of enter
tainment for demented souls.
Then there is the story I heard on Christmas
Eve at the impressionable and naive age of fifteen, at a
time when I thought everyone was "normal" and "decent"
to some extent. While drinking dark Barcardi and milk
with co-workers and their friends, I was told of a time, by
one of the old gentlemen present, when he and his
friends used to frequent an old apartment in downtown
Washington, DC. For only a dime they were allowed en
try to a crowd of people so large the room was overflow
ing. As they paid their admission and shouldered
through the crowd, their young adolescent eyes found
the main attraction- a woman on all fours with a Cen
sored) ■■■■■■. The thought and the mental pic
ture drawn are still shocking to me this day. So have we
really degraded our entertainment? I think not. Some of
us just do not look at the past in all its glory or darkness,
depending on whose looking. So when I hear those peo
ple talking, I smile inside, knowing they only see the past
they wish to see, and that we have come a little way to
wards decency in all aspects of entertainment.
Is it safe to get back in the...air?
By: Vicki Scott
In June I bought airline tickets to Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico for my annual soccer tournament that’s held the
first weekend in November. Little did I know, little did
anyone know, that the September 11 events would oc
cur. My team and I didn’t know how our airline would be
affected. I think I secretly wanted them to tell us we
couldn’t go. I’ve always been leery of flying on a plane
anyway. Yes, I know, it’s safer in an airplane than in a
car. Oh well. Now I was even more uneasy than before. I
kept up with the news, as I’m sure everyone else was
doing. As time drew closer to the beginning of Novem
ber we realized the game was still on. Everyone was be
ing told to go on with his or her lives. Don’t let the evildo
ers control or alter your lives. Be brave. So, on we went
as I’m sure many Americans who also had previous
plans laid out to fly did. There were some that didn’t fly
to the tournament and say they will never fly again.
There was a whole team that didn’t come due to some
airport problems where they lived. All the teams were
from around the United States.
There definitely have been some changes at the
airports. I was in the Charlotte and the Houston airports
in the states and then in Puerto Vallarta’s airport in Mex
ico. All airports had more security. Men standing with
guns at the places where my bags and I were checked
looked ominous even though they were in place for our
own good. My sister-in-law (our awesome goalie) could
n’t take her lighter on the plane when leaving Mexico to
come home. Razors, pocketknives, etc. had to be
packed in the check-in luggage and could not be in the
carry-on bags. More thorough checking of our luggage
and carry-on bags occurred at more than one location.
They even scanned several passengers with a metal de
tector wand in Mexico before they could get on the
plane. (Continued on next page)