Posted on 02/21/2011 10:29:38 AM PST by Gena Bukin
Regardless of whether a judge or jury finds Evan Emory guilty of a sex offense for creating a lewd video with schoolchildren in the background, the case has highlighted a cultural divide between the so-called Millennial Generation and pretty much everyone else.
Many of the Millennials — mostly young adults without children — wonder what all the fuss is about. So Emory made a video with Ravenna elementary children in the background looking surprised and smiling a lot. They say since Emory sang a harmless “Lunch Lady Land” song to the children during his actual performance and subbed in lyrics with sexually graphic references afterward, before posting the video to YouTube, that no harm was done.
These Millennials see the video as a joke and comedy, and even if some admit the video was in bad taste, they believe no crime was committed. This kind of thing is on comedy shows and MTV all the time, they reason. And it’s certainly on YouTube, the social networking site that allows anyone to post a video of almost any kind for the entire world to see.
They are outraged that Emory, who was a good student himself at Ravenna and never got into any trouble, is facing a 20-year felony charge of manufacturing child sexually abusive material. They can’t fathom that Emory, if convicted, is facing the possibility of having to be on the sex offender registry the rest of his life when he didn’t actually “expose” the children to anything.
Then there is the opposite spectrum — those who are horrified that someone would find humor in using children as a backdrop for a sexually explicit song. Whether the children actually heard the lyrics or not is beside the point, they reason, because it was the children’s innocent faces that were shown smiling and giggling when Emory’s nasty words were heard by hundreds and perhaps thousands of people before the video was removed from YouTube.
The parents of the children on the video are especially horrified, and as a parent, I can’t blame them. It would make me sick to my stomach to see one of my children placed in a situation like that. Many of them think the charges fit the crime, though it’s pretty clear that a 20-year felony for something like this is way over the top.
Still, the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s office wants to make an example out of Emory so they went after the “big” charge. And Ravenna Superintendent John VanLoon probably echoed the sentiments of many folks when he said: “If you think that’s something funny, you really need to review and look at your personal values.”
Which brings up a bigger challenge in this age of technology. There was a time when you could limit the kind of garbage kids are exposed to — a time when TV programming didn’t allow even partial nudity and there weren’t hundreds of cable channels from which to choose, smart phones, the Internet and social media. Today there is no place to hide and despite the best efforts of parents, kids are influenced by all these contraptions they can access almost anywhere, anytime.
According to Wikipedia, the Millennials have been shaped by the rise of instant communication technologies and are “peer-oriented.” Reality TV, MTV, YouTube and the like have helped to desensitize teens and young adults to the difference between right and wrong.
Many young folks seek the instant gratification and star quality so prevalent in society today. And they seek it without considering the consequences.
Which, at least, might explain the cultural divide this case has highlighted — even if it doesn’t provide a good way to fix it.
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What offends me is your nambla approach to children....it's cool as long as nobody gets hurt. and you decide what that means.
Exactly. It wasn’t a joke or a prank and it wasn’t intended to be one.
Well, something we agree on! I too think it’s a waste of taxpayer monies to throw this pervert in jail. It would be far cheaper and much safer for society if an efficient frontal lobotomy was performed and this pervert then trained to rake leaves and sweep floors.
It’s likely that they are a Tru Blewer and trolling morality threads.
Sound fine to me. Just let the parents of the children do the beating.
If you see this kids mug shot he has a smart ass smirk on his face. He knew the video was a prank and thought getting caught was just part of the joke.
The smirk quickly faded when the 20 years in prison charge came and he knew he Farked up.
Until the ACLU teamed up with porn producers, pornography and obscenity were illegal. For roughly 200 years.
But thanks to the communist founded ACLU and princes like Larry Flynt, we now have omnipresent pornography and sexually explicit stuff that would make the Marquis de Sade embarrassed.
It has nothing to do with Big Government. It has everything to do with leftists and sick depraved scum forcing their view on society.
Tell those children will have this haunting them for their whole life that nobody was hurt.
They have to get their street creds. If this troll would just show the folks at true blew his/her home videos of sex acts with zoo animals, it would save everyone the bother.
Disclaimer: My depiction of this troll as a participant of bestiality in no way actually harms the troll. I offer no monetary compensation for the troll’s acting.
Personally, I think pedos should rot in jail, those who actually HARM children either physically or emotionally.
The person charged in this case has done neither. Was his video extravaganza in extreme poor taste? Absolutely. Does he deserve to go to jail over it? Certainly not. It also could have been a masterstroke of self-marketing and publicity generation for his questionable musical abilities.
A decade or more ago Ice-T made an album that contained a song called “Cop Killer”. Of course it created a media firestorm involving even the FBI Director, who just had to go on TV and put his two cents in. All the resorting publicity caused this relatively mediocre album to sell in triple-platinum numbers.
Talk about marketing genius. You couldn’t pay a Madison Ave. firm a large enough fee to generate the kind of publicity through an ultra-expensive ad campaign that the media hoopla created for free.
Now kindly get down off your sanctimonious high horse and relax. Have a cocktail or two and listen to some soothing Chopin Nocturnes. Your blood pressure will thank you for it.
For sexual purposes?
For promotional purposes. He needed little kid actors for his video.
Let the parents sue the guy for failing to pay the kids.
Trevor on the Whitest Kids U Know has I think a segment where he sings a song to school children THE CHILDREN!!! where he sings a little song to them about things like how to make meth. “and that’s how you make meth”. Watch TV, write down what you see, and complain.
The people in Hollywood do not believe in Christianity, and the people in Hollywood do want to destroy our moral values.
Whitest Kids U Know is actually funny though, and is less overall gay than other comedy shows.
They actually have gay characters on TV shows and movies now, and they do things other than get beaten up, too. Sodomites. On TV. Get on it.
You should seek help, you need it.
And I assume that it should be up to the Federal Government to lay down the rules of what should and should not be written about. You got the mom and the DJ on your side there.
Screw freedom of speech. I don’t like it. Ban it. Just like a Democrat, but you want to ban different stuff.
“Using children in a sex music video encourages pedophiles. “
Yes it can, but that does not make him one for doing this.
Pedophiles find kids on youtube in all kinds of settings that peak their sickness.
Parents post their kids in bathing suits and in gymnast performances all the time, and they also turn these sickos on.
After my past with a pedophile abusing me, I have made it a life mission to catch these pricks and have helped get 3 put in prison.
Unfortunately all three spent less than 10 years before getting let out and 2 were let out in 5 years.
One has since went back.
Part of that mission is understanding their behavior.
I think they should be shot in the head because they will never change or stop craving their victims.
This kid is not one.
Prank?
He knew the video was a sick sexual video using children as props to titillate sickos.
Good legal disclaimer.
How did they hear about this video? If these kids are “haunted”, who brought it to their attention? They playing this video on TV now?
If you think I have the slightest interest in mass media you’re mistaken.
Obviously your shallow mind is absorbed in filth and you are now covered with it so deeply you have lost all sense of right and wrong.
Where’s his mugshot? It’s only fair that he get the exposure the kids did. :-)
And after you did that, “your” child would still be in a child porn video all over the internet, being viewed by pedophiles who would love to steal “your” child. Since “your” name has been all over the news, they’ll have no trouble locating “your” child.
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