TANK: What do you need... besides a miracle? NEO: Guns...lots of guns.

When the samuari of Japan drew their sword, they were going to kill someone. They didn't draw it to scare or intimidate anyone. They did not draw their sword because they were disgruntled. They did not draw their sword because they were mad at a group of minorities. They did not carry them out of fear that someone would attack them. It was a weapon of death, and it was respected as such. There was a code of ethics.
America is a gun obsessed culture. The right to carry a gun, is worth the lives of our citizens... our children. The gun too is a weapon of death. There is nothing else it is good for. Yet, it is not respected and there are no ethics. It is abused. It is used in robberies, rapes, car jackings... children innocently have killed each other with them, and people have gone on murdeous rampages, taking whomever they can with them. And movies get the blame for this. The bottom line is, we are all responsible for our behavior, our feelings and our relationships in our lives. There are choices where people think there are none.

Benjamin Nathaniel Smith, can shoot at and kill blacks, Jews and Asians, yet the organization be belonged to, the "World Church of the Creator" which is a racist organization, which distributes hate information, isn't held accountable for Smith's murderous racist rampage, but Hollywood is responsible for children's acts of violence? The tendency for racist organizations to show propensities for violence is well documented back to the 19th century when the Klu Klux Klan first formed. But they have a right to exist, and freely distribute their hate information. Yet, we want movie theaters to card teenagers to protect their fragile, innocent minds.

WE have to set an example... we smoke, and tell our children not to smoke. This is an alcoholic nation and we wonder why kids start drinking so young. WE curse, and smack our children if they vocalize any profanity. We beat our children to discipline them, sending them a mixed message... that violence is used to control people.. it's used to get what you want... to make others do what you want them to do. Parents donot make mature children... children make mature parents.

The responsibility is not with Hollywood, nor the makers of any videogames. It's too bad trenchcoats and automatic weapons in "The Matrix" overshadows its more important aspects... that we have choices... that so we believe, so we are.

America has a legacy... a bloody violent legacy. This past 4th of July, as I watched the fireworks, I thought about these words... "and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air" I didn't see liberty and freedom. I saw death and destruction. I wondered how a Kosovo refugee would react to hearing and seeing those fireworks, not knowing it was a holiday.
Violence does has a purpose. Human beings were not put upon the earth, unable to defend themselves. There are things worth fighting for. There are martial systems, designed not only to teach people HOW to fight, but more importantly, "WHEN" to fight. But our country's view of itself, and it's ideas about war and fighting are too idealistic... too fantasized and romanced about. Films like The Green Berets and Sands of Imo Jima concern me more about how they affect people than The Matrix. Do you know the real reason they give medals to war veterans? So war appeals to the younger generations. We need a dose of truth, to begin to change things at its root, not at the leaves.