A Sign of the Times: Video Game Injuries

I can still recall having small callouses on my thumbs from playing Sega too extensively for a couple of hours at a time back in the early 90s. No big deal, I could still function and move on with my life.

Now, reports are coming out that injuries and accidents are occurring due to the aggressive actions used to play Nintendo Wii games. Indeed, doctors are even making the news by providing warm-up tips in preparation of playing an intense game of bowling on your home TV. So what does all this mean? It means our health insurance rates will be going up again! Duh!

Kidding (or maybe I'm not!), but seriously, I think if kids are going to play video games, playing active games like the ones Wii provides is probably better than the sedentary games that I played in the days of yore. However, I still think this hurts the outdoor playing that kids miss these days. For instance, I frequently see kids of all ages roaming about the neighborhood. It's great that they're outside... but these kids just do not know how to play! They just wander around, occasionally wrestle, or bang a Wiffle Ball bat against a pole, or engage in something equally non-productive. I have not seen any kids
playing catch, organizing a game, or being creative in any way. And
this is similar behavior in kids all over.

Unfortunately, parents will look at the Wii as an exercise event for their children and be content with it. Until the Wii games are incorporated in a lifestyle of playing in a variety of different ways, indoors and outdoors, this should not be considered acceptable!

Put in another way, I'd rather my children skin their knee in a game of capture the flag than by straining their arm in Wii tennis.

Well, soon enough kids will be playing capture the flag on a Wii set, no doubt!

Sigh.

Fighting a War, Not Fighting Crime

So we have approximately 152,000 troops stationed in Iraq right now, fighting a war that seems never ending. I'm not here to rant about what I think about the war, but just keep that number in mind.

Now think about your typical soldier. The" stereotype" might be: dedicated to his/her country, patriotic, hard worker, looking to help others, in search of new adventures. I think most people would conjure up those types of words when describing a typical soldier.

Now think about the latest crime statistics in the U.S. Violent crime rose quite significantly across the country.

Now allow me to make some connections between the two points...

• With more than 152,000 of our country's "finest" young men and women gone overseas in Iraq alone, this country has lost a major chunk of its future leaders, family heads, and community citizens. This leaves a huge hole in the fabric of our country that can't be filled in. Or perhaps it can be filled in... by criminals.
• Let's just say that we took 1/3 of those troops and trained them to walk or patrol the streets of major cities and towns, the way they do in Iraq. Perhaps not with tanks and armored vehicles, but with uniforms and protective gear on. Call them police officers, call them peacekeepers, call them re-positioned soldiers. Whatever. If these hard working, dedicated, and loyal folks were to walk around impoverished (or even beautiful) communities, imagine the improvement in tone from the citizens who see them everyday. Many cities are short on cops, so these armed forces could fill in the gaps.
• The cost of this war is estimated to be 2 TRILLION DOLLARS. Um, that's no chump change. If this country were to take just a fraction of that, let's say one billion dolars and spread it out across major cities for programs to help police officers, provide activities for kids, or help repair destroyed communities, can you imagine what that would do? Now flow 2 trillion dollars into cities and towns and imagine what could be done. To me the possibilities are quite astounding indeed.
• By fighting an on-going war where we hear about killings, bombings, shootings, and so forth every single day, what kind of message send to our youth, who are most vulnerable to commit or be a victim of crime? Well, Johnny, we're going to keep shooting and shooting and shooting over in Iraq, so you might as well do the same here. Kids love to be copycats, whether it's playing a game of basketball ("I wanna be like Mike") to shooting a gun. Kids learn by imitating others, and showing them a life full of guns and murders is not helping.
  

That's just the way I see it.