Reality check

I am not a particularly creative person. My scholarly interests lie in measurements, tests, interviews, and other qualitative and quantitative investigations into why people do what they do. Having joined a department that offers both this social science approach (as it's commonly called in the world of mass communication), as well as a more creative, cultural studies track, I have had to educate myself on the basics of script writing, video production, and radio broadcasting. And much to my amazement, I actually kind of like it. Granted, I will never be the next Steve Innskeep or Quentin Tarantino, but I have learned to distinguish the good from the bad and the worthy from the unworthy. After all, if you've gone to school for a good 22 years, you have, if nothing else, learned to learn quickly.

But I never cease to be amazed by students who choose to focus their senior project on a video piece, or a radio production. Obviously, only a few show budding Tarantino-potential, but their creative explorations do allow me a sneak peak into their personal lives. Because no matter how much you tell students to think outside the box, outside the world they call their own, pieces of them will always reappear in their work. Having said that, I think I can safely conclude that our students are obsessed with relationships, friendships, unwanted pregnancies, substance abuse, race issues, and your usual early twenties-angst. Oh yeah, and talking animals.

And today I got a genuine reality check when a student came in to present her idea for a video production piece. Her piece is to focus on a girl struggling with the death of her father, which is a theme that does reoccur on a regular basis. But completely new to me was how the father died. The student told me the man was a soldier, and he was going to die in one of the wars.

Before I could say or ask anything else, the student told me she had it all thought out too. She was going to ask some ROTC members to pose as the army chaplains, and have them bring the bad news early in the morning.

Let's just say I sat there for one second, before I was able to formulate a response that made some sort of sense. That was not so much because it hits close to home, and hearing an idea like this gives me those chills that turn into a constant, nagging worry about all those people I know out there. What really took me by surprise is that war and death are now a part of this generation's reality. There was no reason for the fictional dad to die in any of the wars. His military career does not feature in the story at all. Yet that seemed like a more logical cause of death to my student than say a car accident.

Since the Vietnam era, this country has not been in a conflict that lasted this long, and it's starting to show. My students, the student with whom I met earlier today, they were maybe 12 or 13 when the first war broke out. Subsequently, they are truly a cohort who does not know any better than that our, your, country is at war.

If nothing else, to me that is a sign that it is high time to somehow end these conflicts. I know that we can't just do that. I realize that there is a lot at stake. I understand that we have a plan. But when a twenty-one year old needs to come up with a cause of death in her script, and decides that the war is the best option, something needs to change.