Swicord’s Solution

Kudos to Robin Swicord for her powerful article (“Youth Must Be Served--With Respect,” May 30). Having shared her experience of finding only the “gangsta” or “whore” varieties of clothes and entertainment for budding young women, and having shared the shock and horror of repeated violent events, perhaps a saving grace for us all will be greater awareness of “the dark side”’ of media power.

Maybe Swicord will at last be able to convince some studio in this town that there is, in fact, a desperate need for responsible and inspirational movies for young adults. We can watch “Little Women” only so many times.

SHELLEY LONG

Los Angeles

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Swicord and the letter writers who support her simplistic view make a significant, fundamental error in their rush to blame teen violence on the media: Despite a few horrific, highly publicized incidents such as Columbine, violent crime in America is at its lowest level in years.

Is it possible that exposure to images of violence serve a cathartic effect that reduces the need to act out aggressively? Or, as is even more probable, do images in the popular media have nothing at all to do with the complex reasons that some of us decide to hurt each other? As long as we point fingers at illusory villains and react to a “crisis” that isn’t really there, we will never find the answer.

CHRISTOPHER MUNDALE

Aliso Viejo