By Muriel Sluyter

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Many Americans remember a murder that took place while the victim, Kitty Genovese, screaming and running frantically from her attacker, begged her neighbors to help her. It took place in New York, 1964; the woman’s neighbors were aware of the attack — some even watched it — but did nothing. When asked why, they said they didn’t want to become involved.

The murder sent shockwaves across this country. We couldn’t believe neighbors could be so calloused, because Americans were not that kind of people. It made us examine ourselves; what would we have done in that circumstance?

A year or so ago, a reporter went back to that neighborhood and tried to interview the residents who still lived there, those who had knowingly allowed a woman to be murdered right under their noses without raising a finger. They refused to talk about it.

It is important to remember that movies and TV shows of that era were not devoted to a continual stream of violence; viciousness and filthiness. Americans were not hardened to such things then. In fact, shortly before he died, Roy Rogers, commenting on the extreme violence and animosity that characterizes modern shows, reminded us that in his day, the hero didn’t kill the bad guy, splattering blood all over everything and everybody. He shot the gun out of the criminal’s hand and informed both the villain and the audience that this bad guy was headed for jail. Then he reminded the children in the audience that crime doesn’t pay.

The good guy was always good, and he always won. Hollywood doesn’t work that way anymore. Now, everything is done according to a formula. Heroes aren’t really heroic, and movies must have a specific number of episodes of bloody violence, brutal action scenes, sex scenes, including rapes, filthy language, etc.

So now, let’s think about the results of these types of shows. Do they increase a sense of community, in which men would aggressively protect a woman who was being murdered before their eyes? Would women, watching a real murder, call the police? Or has America become so hardened by the shows we watch that we would all do as those Easterners did all those years ago?

There is no question that there are men who would jump to the defense of a neighbor screaming for help. But would very many real men be available in such an extremity? Do we still have a sufficient number of the Roy Rogers types to defend a victim, even under those circumstances? Or, have we so sufficiently lost our sense of community that even we Westerners could ignore such a hideous act?

There is another element at work here: We have informers who are determined that all Americans will behave as they demand. Fear of neighbors keeps parents from disciplining children, who often grow up to attack the very neighbors who caused them to be undisciplined in the first place.

For revenge, a child, divorced spouse or neighbor accuses a man of abuse, sexual or otherwise. Would he risk his life defending someone who had falsely accused him? Probably not.