TEENAGE WASTELAND

As the parent of a high school age teenager, I have followed the
controversy surrounding the Conference on World Affairs (CWA) event
that was recently held at Boulder High School with magnified interest.
All parents, regardless of their political or religious predilections,
are concerned for the safety and well-being of our children, and these
concerns certainly increase as kids progress into their teenage years
and become subject to the risks associated with the onset of sexual
activity and exposure to drugs and alcohol.

Parents of teenagers also bear a unique responsibility to prepare a
new generation to successfully address the problems of the very
troubled world they are about to inherit from us. I take this "passing
of the torch" very seriously, as do all of the parents I know, and
have spent countless hours discussing this subject with my daughter.

Earlier this spring, I had an experience that served to assuage my
concerns about the character of a generation raised on cable TV,
Playstation, $100 designer jeans and the iPod. On April 14 at the
Boulder Theater, some 90 students from Boulder, Fairview, Monarch and
Holy Family high schools participated in a charity fashion show and
silent auction, called Fashion for Compassion, to benefit the
Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Non-Violence (SPAN). This selfless
group of teenagers donated countless hours of their time in procuring
more than 100 outfits and several tables full of auction items from
the local business community, selling tickets, producing flyers,
selecting music and managing countless details in staging an event
that belied the youth and inexperience of its producers.

The result was more than $7,000 raised for our local safehouse through
an event that was a source of pride in our teenage population for the
entire greater Boulder community.

Witnessing this event convinced me that our local youth have their
heads screwed on straight and are truly worthy recipients of the torch
we are in the process of passing to them. However, after witnessing
another event - the addressing of a complaint that was registered by
Boulder High School student Daphne White about the content of a CWA
panel discussion she attended - it is clear that those currently
holding that torch are less capable of handling it than the generation
of naive, inexperienced teenagers they purport to be
"protecting."

Most of the media coverage and discussion in the aftermath of White's
complaint has focused on the relative appropriateness of the content
of the discussion, titled "STDs: Sex, Teens and Drugs." This could
have been an interesting and productive dialogue between those with
different points of view on the subject. But discussing controversial
issues intelligently and respectfully is an endeavor that has been
all but abandoned by the current torch carriers in our culture.

Regrettably, but predictably, those on the far-right end of the
political spectrum have seized the opportunity to bang as loudly as
possible on their "liberal progressives are ruining the world" drums,
thereby obfuscating any reasonable dialogue that might have ensued
from such a consequential issue as this. Six-and-a-half years (and
counting) of poor modeling of how to engage rationally and sensibly
about issues such as teen sexuality and drug use is of infinitely more
danger to our future torch carriers than what they might have gleaned
from one botched panel discussion.

Rather than bore my readers with some of the ubiquitous examples from
performer-masquerading-as-journalist Bill O'Reilly, I will instead
cite the letter sent to Boulder Valley School District Superintendent
George Garcia by a common citizen from Redding, Calif., to illustrate
my point. Jack Redding (whose name is being omitted to protect the
innocent, namely me, since the sender has been stalking me with emails
ever since I came to Garcia's defense), apparently, got all O'Reillyed
up after seeing Mr. Bill rant and rave about "Boulder secular
progressives" on Fox News. Unable to contain his O'Reilly-inspired
rage, Redding sent a despicable, hateful letter to Garcia and copied
journalists throughout our area, including yours truly.

In his threatening missive, titled "You are a creepy person," Redding
warned Garcia that parents whose children attended the panel
discussion in question should "hunt you down like a rat and punish you
physically." Further, Redding opined that Garcia should be "tortured
and then murdered by a distraught parent," and "treated with the
harshest form of 'revenge.'"

While ramping up to the grand finale, Redding called Garcia a "moron,"
"lowlife" and "coward." Then, after paying homage to his hero,
O'Reilly - whom he copied on this missive, as well as the five
similarly hateful letters he sent to me after I got involved - Redding
played his "trump card."

"Frankly, you are on your way to hell, and most probably some
distraught parent may assist you in reaching your destination. Change
your ways Garcia or burn in hell."

After reading this nauseating attack, I was overcome by a deep sense
of sadness. Our world has become so horribly divided along political
and religious lines by those who maintain and enhance their positions
of power by turning us against each other, thereby obfuscating their
own greedy agendas. And they have purchased the partnership of mock
journalists, such as O'Reilly, to do their bidding for them. The
result is an unwarranted attack on a beleaguered, outgoing school
superintendent whose legacy is about to become unfairly tainted by
virtue of an ill-timed controversy blown out of proportion by those
who would abuse it for its usefulness as a political tool.

Circling back to the original theme - passing the torch of leadership
of our culture to a new generation - how ironic it is that the example
being modeled by our current "leadership" is far more devastating to
our youth than a handful of well-intended but poorly delivered
messages on the part of some apparently ill-chosen panelists. While
the latter can easily be dismissed as personal opinion, the former is
nothing less than a nightmarish lesson in the disrespect and
intolerance of differences of opinion that have become far too
commonplace in the "land of freedom."

After reading the hateful attack on Superintendent Garcia, I felt he
was owed an apology. Knowing that he would never receive one from Mr.
Redding - and certainly not from the instigator of Redding's angry
rant, Bill O'Reilly - I decided to take it upon myself. Last week I
issued to George Garcia an apology on behalf of all of us who have
collaborated in creating a culture where differences are met with such
negativity and disrespect. I have included it below.

Sent to Boulder Valley School District Superintendent George Garcia by
Boulder Weekly Publisher Stewart Sallo on Friday, June 1, 2007:

An apology on behalf of humanity

Dear Mr. Garcia,

I am the owner/publisher over here at Boulder Weekly. I was copied on
the hateful note that was sent to you recently by Jack Redding
(editor's note: the name has been changed in this column, but was
unchanged in the original letter), assumedly because he is operating
under the delusion that a reputable media organization would take such
a vile missive seriously. Let me reassure you that Boulder Weekly does
not take people like this seriously, and I would encourage you to
follow suit.

I am writing to you on behalf of humanity to issue an apology. We are
truly sorry that you have been attacked in this manner. You did not
deserve this, and it is truly regrettable that you have become the
target for a lifetime of hate and unhappiness that has apparently been
accumulating in this particular individual.

Jack Redding's letter stands as evidence that there is clearly
something fundamentally wrong with our society, and as a member of
that society I am personally apologizing to you for being part of a
system that is so horribly broken.

For 25 years, I have been a newspaper publisher, and I am proud of the
fact that my newspapers have tried to encourage respectful and
constructive dialogue between and among people of various points of
view. In a free society, there should always be room for multiple
viewpoints and the means to respectfully share them. Jack Redding is
certainly entitled to his point of view, which, as I understand it, is
that the material presented at Boulder High School as part of the
Conference on World Affairs was inappropriate and not in the best
interest of the students who were in attendance. As a champion of free
speech in our free society, I support Jack's right to express his
perspective.

However, the abusive and scurrilous manner in which this opinion was
expressed would be considered unacceptable to any reasonable,
clear-thinking individual. Have we devolved so far in our culture
during recent years that we are unable to discuss the critical issues
of our time with the understanding that those who have different ways
of looking at things are also human beings who are entitled to be
treated with respect and kindness?

What I find particularly ironic about Jack Redding's wish that you
burn in hell is that his hateful manner of addressing his thoughts and
feelings on this issue flies in the face of the "religious beliefs" he
seems to hold as a justification for his despicable attack. I would
assume that Jack would describe himself as a "Christian," but the lack
of "Christianity" in his note is unmistakable.

So, again, on behalf of humanity, I apologize for the contemptible way
you have been treated. We are all accountable for having created a
society that promotes this brand of hatred. Please rest assured that
we at Boulder Weekly are doing our utmost to remedy this problem.

Yours truly,