Essay on the personal impact of the internet.

While there are those who understandably complain that the net provides a forum for hate groups and makes pornographic material accessible to children, the information highway has also proven to be a tremendous resource for both global and personal transformation. In numerous instances, it has made the world both smaller and, at the same time, broader.

The net, a world without geographic borders, has made it possible for people from all over the world with diverse spiritual and political backgrounds to connect with one another. Michael and Ronda Haubon, authors of, "Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet," observe,

"Easy connection to people and ideas from around the world has a powerful effect. Awareness that we are members of the human species, which spans the entire globe, changes a person's point of view."

On the net prospective employees and employers are brought together, parents, professionals, activists, and special interest groups network, buyers and sellers hook up, those in need are linked to resources, and the displaced are united with old friends, while countless individuals make new ones every day.

The old clichés, "let your fingers do the walking" and, "the world is at your finger tips" take on a whole new meaning on the internet. Once on the world wide web, a student is able to locate information for a school report, a patient can become better informed about his illness, an employee might discover new tools to improve her job performance, an investor is able to receive updates on the stock exchange, and a new mother possesses access to a vast number of resources for parents.

In this fast paced and complicated world complete with numerous challenges that confront us on a daily basis the internet provides information, explanations, and potential solutions. The intention of this column is to point you to some of the best resources available on the web that address issues that concern you. Has the internet touched your life? If it has, we would love to hear about it. If it hasn't yet, just give us, and it a little more time.

June 1999 Edition

From Columbine to Columbia to Any Town USA

Like so many Americans, I'm still attempting to come to terms with the unfathomable tragedy that struck without warning at Columbine High, a school not so unlike our own schools here in Columbia. The residents of Littleton shared the same civic pride in community accomplishments as we do here in the Midlands . Before April 20th, 1999 what distinguished us from Littleton was largely a matter of geography and demographics. Today we are worlds apart.

We can't begin to comprehend the horror and grief that has devastated Littleton, Colorado. We can respond with heart-felt sympathy and deep compassion for their suffering, but we can't possibly know how the residents of Littleton feel. Still, as fellow citizens of the United States, we do share with Littleton a chilling distinction. Our schools have witnessed more mass murders perpetrated by students than any where else in the world.

There have been numerous explanations rendered as to why in at least nine separate instances during the past twelve months American students have murdered fellow students. Many have concluded that parents aren't involved enough with their children, guns are too accessible, and that the violence is a reaction to child abuse and neglect, or to the massive amount of violence portrayed in the movies and on television. Other explanations include that teens are feeling increasingly alienated and empty, schools are too crowded and understaffed, families are too stressed, and that we're failing to provide adequate role models, and to pass on proper morals and values to our children. The list of "why's" goes on and on and on.

Shawn Hubler in a thought provoking piece for the Los Angeles Times entitled, "A Shooting that Burst the Suburban Bubble," observed, "...these massacres have less to do with public policy than with private pain." I very much agree with Ms. Hubler, the actions of Harris and Klebold may very well have had far more to do with a private pain that was manifested all too publicly and horrifically rather than with public policy. However, I would like to suggest another possibility as well. Bill Moyers once observed that, "the largest party in America today isn't the democrats or the republicans, it's the party of the wounded." He's right I think, we've all been wounded. Wounded by a barrage of bad news, political scandals, jobs that so often feel futile, and the signs that surround us of dying cultures, dying children, dying species, and maybe even a dying earth. It's my humble opinion that children have always acted out not only their own pain, but also the pain of the adults in their lives.