How bad can it get?  How low can they go?  Does escalating media violence and sex dismay you?  Are you concerned that the culture is endangering our children?  It seems that many heavyweights in the government, religious community and private sector share these concerns.  They are calling on executives of the entertainment industry to mend their ways.  They also appeal to “…CEO’s of companies that advertise in the electronic media – to join with us and with America’s parents in a new social compact aimed at renewing our culture and making our media environment more healthy for our society and safer for our children.”  This is a Media Social Responsibility Project sponsored by George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
     We are being asked to join former Presidents Carter and Ford, Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, Senators John McCain and Kay Bailey Hutchison, Entertainers Naomi Judd and Carol Lawrence, former Education Secretary William J. Bennett, along with thousands of concerned citizens and let our voice be heard.  These, and others, have written “An Appeal to Hollywood,” a very interesting document challenging entertainment executives to take a serious look at the affect that they are having upon our culture.  The Appeal’s message is simple:  “It calls upon the entertainment industry to develop a voluntary code of conduct to establish minimum standards and curtail the excessive violence and sexual content that has increasingly come to mark popular entertainment, especially that directed at the young.”  From my limited perspective this sounds a little bit like the fox guarding the hen house, but something clearly has to be done about the spiraling moral decline of the entertainment world.
     Hollywood has for years justified the increasing sexual and violent content in its productions by insisting that this is what the people want, that is, it amounts to big money at the box office.  The Appeal, however, suggests that the majority of people really want the opposite: “According to a recent CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, 76% of adults agree that TV, movies and popular music are negative influences on children, and 75% report that they make efforts to protect children from such harmful influences.”
     We are asked to join thousands of concerned citizens by signing our names to the project.  You may do this by visiting their website at www.media-appeal.org.  Or, you may simply fill out the coupon that you will find on the tract rack next to the office.  The coupon may either be mailed to the address given on the form itself, or faxed to the number provided.  If you are interested you may visit their website and read for yourself the entire text of the Appeal.  You may also check the list of signers.  It also allows you to see for yourself the 7,500 names of people who have signed the appeal since July 21st.  Here is a wonderful opportunity to let your voice be heard!