Whatever Happened to John Doe?

1982 was a happy year for the fun-lovin' me. Among other fixtures of my existence, TV seemed more than ever to reflect my life style and world view. They had the most hilarious show on called T.J. Hooker; a parody of the cult of law enforcement meets homo erotica. The characters were perfect cartoons, the crooks were always severely pimped out or long hairs, and invariably drugs were involved. Who couldn't loudly cheer when hearing, "eat lead you death-dealing punks!" That rug, Zmed's haircake, Yay!

Then I realized they were serious. A-Team, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy, Heart to Heart, CHiPs, and even T.J. were deadly serious, and every show that followed thereafter was/is a celebration of the American Cult of Violence.

Like cigarette companies, the somebody pulling the strings, knowing their products seductive qualities entice children with Mr. T and by the time they meet Jack Bauer they are slobbering like Pavlov's dog.

The thing that bothers me, especially while I'm watch The War every night, is our countries' bent in worshiping the individual hero syndrome (see John Glenn), verses our traditional heroes born from collective and individual responsibility, and the need to protect and defend our families, faith and society at large. This loss to America is described so well by people like Susan Faludi (see "Stiffed") and personified by the recent loss of Studs Terkle.

The north side of town is crippled for a big part of the day by a memorial for a fallen police officer today. At a suburban mega church, with guns and jets and perhaps some Lee Greenwood tunes - I don't know. I feel for him and his family, who didn't seek the side-sho.

This phenomena irks me somewhat, because for the longest time I've noticed from mulling over labor statistics that police officers account for about 4-5% of all workplace deaths. 1000 construction workers vs 250 cops die every year. How come we don't cry so much for truckers, farmers, fisherman and even office workers, increasingly women, who die in staggeringly higher rates, and percentage of the entire trade they represent. The poor people that sell us coffee and liquor everyday have an astronomically higher chance of being capped by a bad guy than ten regular policemen. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf

How come we can't see the flag draped coffins? The real heroes?