WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH? 

     Two days ago, I spent six hours with a ten-year-old patient. This is a smart kid who was not feeling any physical pain. He was however having a problem with boredom. To help pass the time we played some video games, then he watched several hours of TV. I was able to catch enough of the programing for kids his age to get a taste of what they have available to them in the name of entertainment. Man, oh man, I’d hate to be hiring people who had had a diet of this junk while they were growing up. 
     Some of it was cartoons and some of it was live actors. Most of the plots revolved around conflicts of some kind or another. In nearly every case the kids worked out the situations despite the bumbling efforts of the adults. Mostly the male adults. 
     Some of the programs featured black families or black communities with a few clownish people of other ethnic origins thrown in. I was surprised at the black on black racist content. The dialogue was mostly mind-sapping clichés – it certainly didn’t show black people, or anyone else, as being anywhere near smart, articulate, or respectful of anyone who was any of those things. 
     Whatever happened to good old Wile E Coyote, who would encounter at least thirty life-ending encounters per thirty-minute show and be alive tomorrow at 3:00.