Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 21, 1986, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press december issues children learn violent behaviour by Karen Burgoyne special to the free press there has been Over the past few a Subtle promotion of violence and aggression in the form of War this value directed propaganda is an outright assault on the hearts and minds of our children and the Are allowing it to children Are receiving the Mes Sage through War aggressive and violent television military computer comic books and even breakfast did you know that d War toy sales have increased 600 per cent Over the past three years ten different War cartoons Are available television with six More in production for each is funded by a toy company and produced to help War toy sales that five of the six to Selling toys in the United states Are now War and seven of the 10 Are violent in nature each one promoted by its own to cartoon goal of Conquest o modern War cartoons depict militaristic combat by humans or futuristic human like robots with the goal of Conquest the typical War cartoon aver Ages 41 acts of violence per hour with an attempted murder every two an attempted murder is a Standard act of violence in cartoon monitoring and by the most common act of violence dwar cartoon programming has increased from Oneado behalf hours per week in 1982 to 27 hours per week in 1985 the average North american child will see 800 advertisements promoting War toys on to this year and about 250 episodes of War car Toons produced to sell these this is equivalent to 22 Days of classroom desensitizing Arnold director of the Centre for research on aggression at the University of has stated playing with War toys legitimizes and makes violent behaviour it desensitized children to the Dan Gers and harm of violent and increases the Chance that they will resort to violent David chief of Beha vioral science research at the National institutes of mental reports that a link exists Between viewing to violence and subsequent aggressive he cites a 22year new York study that found the Best single prediction of aggressiveness at 19 years of age turned out to be the to programs the subjects preferred when they were eight years old at the begin Ning of the children learn their values through Nego Independent thinking and sharing Are skills that must be on the other Vio Lence and aggression Are also Learned patterns of do we want our children to learn that exerting Power Over others through physical strength is a Good Way to solve problems or do we want them to learn to care for to try to see the other per sons Point of to solve conflict through and not to co operate with others anger and aggressive feelings Are very real we need to show children constructive ways to Deal with these toys Are available which Are fun and exciting without being violent of destructive and redirect aggressive tendencies into creative we must be aware of How our children spend their spare we must choose the kind of play we want to encourage in our there Are some things we As parents and caretakers can do about our concerns refuse to buy d refuse to buy War toys for our discourage friends and relatives from buying them As presents d establish War toys free zones in our our and our Day care centres d write letters to the to local toy stores and to manufacturers expressing our views and discouraging sales of War toys d play games with our children which Foster cooperation rather than destruction d read books with them which Dis cuss War and peace issues d watch to with our Dis cussing what we Are watching d observe our children at helping them to put conflicts in a nonviolent manner d make sure we know what to shows our children Are watch ing and decide for ourselves what is suitable for in our nuclear world we cannot continue to perpetuate the concept of the it becomes increasingly easier to press the Button on a faceless group whom we perceive As the we Are creating an environment which makes War appear Normal and which makes militarism accept children Are our Hope and let us All strive to create an environment which makes peace and nonviolence accept Karen Burgoyne is a member of project peacemakers and coordinator of building peace through kids can turn anything into weapons in play by Barbara roessner Hartford courant i have always Felt that the surest Way to heighten my Chil Drens fascination with mock instruments of destruction is to ban them from our that is for the past Hal dozen Christ i have More or less Capitu lated to the annual pleas for mis Sil launching camouflaged swords embossed with fanged and All manner of ancient and futuristic personal Boycott not this i am fed an evening at the toy store last week proved too i have had i am declaring a personal Boycott against this years onslaught of War toys a grand i though an admittedly hollow because there is not much on the Market my kids do not already you my decision to stand firm against the seasonal barrage was not made on behalf of my i do not believe their physically aggressive approach to each other and the world can be blamed on Joe As some psychiatrists and pacifist groups that their precious Little psyches Are being marred by he i have become Howe that my own psyche is being marred by the constant presence of muscle bound gladiators armed with spiked clubs and space warriors Laden with laser As Well As the ferocious roars and other Battle cries constantly being Emit Ted by my it is All so loud and it is driving me its effect is i it has taken a number of years for me to reach my i just cant take any losing Battle i have seen enough Tennis balls become grenades and building blocks turn into machine guns to know that trying to eradicate the penchant for particularly among is a losing i do believe that we parents should at least attempt to balance it and i have bought my share of frilly stuffed Board games and other devices for bringing out their softer and cooperative based on my experience raising three male i have come to the disheartening conclusion that in the struggle Between genetics and genetics has the upper although there Are certainly i believe that most boys Are bom with both a truck Gene and a gun my two Jearolds first truly de liberate utterance was the unmistakable sound of an engine although he Hast the slightest idea what a gun he is obsessed with any toy he has heard described As and he is forever aiming spoons and shoes and books and lunch boxes at us and bursting Forth with a great staccato Only recently did he become verbal enough to explain that for months he has been Wash ing us with his a he has suffused with Vari Ous characteristics of the Garden this revelation was a great Relief to now that i know i am being pelted with not i feel a Little less irritated and a lot but whether i am being showered or fired i still resent being perpetually under especially at Christmas if the occasion for gift buying were a i might be inclined to accede to the kids but we Are supposed to be celebrating peace and Good right shelling out for a Joe aircraft Carrier seems particularly offensive at this time of a Friend who maintains the controversy Over War toys is grossly overblown insists thai kids inevitably go through and grow out of the gun he played with guns As a child and by adolescence he had lost interest in our society is permeated with he i but i have got a Long wait until i told and i just cannot make it through another 10 or 12 years of unrelenting rata that is easily he insist Tell pm to use no evidence that toys can be harmful by John Dreyfuss los Angeles times some experts say the proliferation of toys promoting Vio Lence will leave its Mark on today creating violent Chil Dren who Are Likely to become violent others say not to one Man who does think play is what its All about is Don Kings chief executive officer of worlds of the Fremont toy company that makes Lazer a game consisting of pistol shaped infrared projectors called Star Lytes by the manufacturer and in its first year o product Lazer tag already is the com pants Best Selling its whole Sale receipts stand Between million and Kings Borough we did a and of the people we 73 per cent really perceived it As a Kingsborough the Way kids play with it is a its they shoot somebody six times and you lose the you shoot somebody six times in a and youre Kingsborough said Lazer tag encourages group Competition and what it really does is spark the imagination of he psychologist Brian one of the nations most highly regarded child play observed that he is very much against the people who have guns in their against the High expenditures on the psychologist noted that there is absolutely no evidence Chil Dren who play with War toys Are prone to becoming violent adding that i would like to remind that we Are talk ing about childrens play i feel playful aggression is important for children because they have to Deal with All kinds of anger and aggression in their lives if they Are Only toys and Are Only played then it has no Neces sary negative if it has consequence it has to be connected with with other pressures in the British love for animals has ugly Side by Richard Gwyn special to the free press London As canadians Are perhaps insufficiently National Bat year is drawing rapidly to a close in the British Are famous for being bonkers about Ani in the mines in the 19th Cen the pit ponies were better treated than the sub teen Little has an armchair psychologist might guess at a time when tooth an claw or neocon is so much in the natural instincts of caring and com passion that All people possess have been redirected to those charitable cases that cant talk most of the consequences of this passion for four footed or feathered human substitutes is thoroughly in my single most cherished personal memory after a year Here in Britain is of tooling along a wind ing country Road near the South coast and of almost driving into the ditch when i spotted the warning sign Toad if people dont drive carefully during the Spring mating the sex crazed toads will get somewhat More thoroughly than do Moose and Deer on Canadian High my most cherished secondhand memory is of Reading a Story last summer about a country Parson charged under the 1981 wildlife and Countryside act for having in stalled a stuffed owl in his Church to frighten away bats that had been covering his pews with their drop the court ruled that he had to remove the under that fines of up to May be levied on anyone who let alone protected species such As lizards and basking this Britain Only poisonous were added to the National Bat year is sort of the apogee of All of the Fauna and care for animals turns into hatred of humans Flora preservation backed by 60 local chose 1986 As the year to do Battle for the much is understood so they say besides a mass distribution of the everything wanted to know about bats but were afraid to the groups carried out a National attitude most it turns think naturally that bats May get entangled in your hair their sonar system is too efficient and that bats Are Blind not certainly not at although they Are color the main objective of Bat year has been to discourage people from cutting Down the Trees in which bats and to encourage them to their attics More attractive to bats by leaving external openings and by not treating their Wood beams with chemicals to kill Wood Worms and to Stop them from destabilizing bats with stuffed except for the devout in that country none of this inconveniences but the line Between eccentricity and zealotry is a Fine or maybe the difference is be tween liking animals and disliking the animal liberation front Alf has about supporters who do Public things like distribute its flyers and about activists in some 50 secret cells around the go to a pull a Hunter off his strip handcuff him to a tree and paint him red or go into their houses at night and rough up the Hunters with the aim of actually putting them in Hospi so reads one recent article in the Alf its activists have smashed the windows of butchers and furrier stores and also of a restaurant that served frogs broken into and done dam age to a meat packing and firebombed pig Geries and meat in Devon Hunters disco Vered at the last moment piano wire had been stretched at neck height through the Woods where they normally among Alf the debate is intense about whether protecting animals justifies harming human Alf press officer Chris Oakley covers All possibilities the Alf is but the fact if there want any animal there be an the Canadian connection in All of this of the Seal British maps in the european parliament led the Campaign to ban imports of Seal which has effectively ended the newfound land and Arctic Seal a shift of opinion has been discernible the arguments of the inuit that they need to Harvest seals to survive have con Vinced Greenpeace to withdraw from the anti Seal word has got Back Here As predicted All the Seal herds have in creased to the Point where they now Are starving to but dont count on a dramatic the Alf has just announced its going to Start a new terrorist Campaign against Brit Ains anglers and sport Toad crossing signs and National Bat year Are one the terror ism of firebombs and of piano wire stretched Between Trees is quite an its the difference Between Between Loving animals and hating wherever you have loveable eccentricity youre almost bound to have some hateful Zea ;