War Toys

May I add a postscript to Michelle Phillips’ letter about the birthday party her 4-year-old son attended? She was appalled because the other children were “running around . . . shooting each other with Rambo M-16s, Rambo .45 revolvers and Uzi submachine guns” under the watchful eyes of their smiling mothers.

Would the mothers still smile, I wonder, if their children behaved as a group of 13- and 14-year-olds did recently? My own son came home the other day to report that a group of boys in his school library viewed a video of the Challenger explosion with great enthusiasm. Their comments: “That was so rad the way that thing blew up!” and “Oh, cool!”

Makes you wonder what another 10 years will bring. Will those same kids be content to watch the carnage on TV and the freeways? Or will they go out and make some of their own?

CHRISTINE FRANZEN

Santa Ana