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Jewish World Review July 25, 2012/ 6 Menachem-Av, 5772 Jeopardy, American Violence, and the Radio City Rockettes By Alan Douglas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In response to the mass shootings on July 20, 2012, at the midnight showing of a movie in a theater in Colorado, television broadcasters and internet bloggers were running non-stop coverage of every detail, video, rumor, and commentator they can find. Reporters were dispatched to give live coverage of how local movie theaters were handling security. Psychologists, religious leaders, sociologists, law enforcement, and as always, "the man on the street" had microphones stuck in their face so they could comment. "Is America a more violent society today?" a reporter asked.
To take a break from this continuing, omnipresent, media barrage, I decided to watch the quiz show, Jeopardy. A question/answer given to Jeopardy contestant that day was about George Metesky. Remembering Metesky answered the reporter's question for me.
Having served on the staff of the Presidential Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence under Presidents Johnson and Nixon, I learned a lot about violence, operating a copy machine, and the futility of presidential commissions. There was a time in the United States, when we were more accustomed to bombings and shootings. Mobsters and gangsters in the 1920s and 30s engaged in gang wars, drive by shootings, and the occasional Valentine's Day Massacre. What we euphemistically call "labor strife" today involved shootings and bombings in the past. When the Mississippi River flooded, destroying homes and farmland during the depression, farmers in America's heartland used dynamite to blow up their neighbors' dams on the other side of the river to divert the rampaging flood water away from their homes. The melting pot of immigration brought together feuding immigrant populations and allowed for old world vendettas to continue in the United States. Our freedom made it commonplace for nationalities to blow up each other's stores, offices, and homes. 1930s, with the depression, fascism, and the Klan, made Jews, Catholics, African Americans, and others targets. And, even the ultimate WASPs, the British, were fair game, in neutral America, during the 1930s. If it was English, it was fair game for the Irish, Italian, and Germans to blow up. At the current site of the US Open Tennis facility, across from the Met's Stadium, during the 1939 World's Fair, that two New City Policemen were killed attempting to defuse a bomb found in the British Exhibit Hall.
The biggest menace to attending the theater was the "Mad Bomber of New York City," George Metesky. For over 20 years he planted bombs in New York Metropolitan area Train stations, Bus Terminals, Macy's, but primarily, in movie theatres. He would go to a movie, make a slit in his seat, and insert a small time bomb. In the midst of the 1954 classic film, "White Christmas" , a Meteskey bomb blew up in a front row seat at the Radio City Music Hall. Management moved the injured out for treatment, and those sitting nearby were relocated; while the rest of the audience continued watching the film. After the movie concluded, Radio City Music Hall launched their annual Christmas show spectacular, featuring the Rockettes. It was only after the high kicking Rockettes had wowed the crowd, and the stage show was over, then the police came in to look for evidence. Compare that scenario to recent shootings and bombings.
When another Metesky bomb was discovered (for the second time) at the New York Public Library, an employee threw it out the window, into Bryant Park, and then called the bomb squad. Today, the librarian's first response would probably have been to immediately call an agent, a literary agent, to negotiate a book deal. Meteskey's reign of terror, which was based upon a work related injury, continued for so long, in part, because the newspapers, law enforcement, government, and the business community agreed that publicity about the bombings would cause a panic, and it would be bad for business. The Mad Bomber was caught after a newspaper agreed to publish his grievances, allowing authorities to gain more clues so they could capture him. In our world today, the media, networks, bloggers and cell phone videographers would never keep a shooting or bombing under wraps.
We can see all the ugliness and violence, all the time, in high definition. Is America more violent today? I don't believe so. We are more technologically advanced, and just as primitive.
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JWR contributor, Alan Douglas, an author, media executive, award winning screenwriter (not produced), and attorney, lives con brio- except when he is grumpy.
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© 2010 Alan Douglas
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