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Jerry Root

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THE MAT POTATO

How can you tell when you've made it? How do you know that you've really arrived? How? Simple. Take a look at how many people are taking pot shots at you.

OK, let me clarify this before somebody gets the idea that since the WCW is roundly panned in most columns, that they're doing better than they really are.

Perhaps I should have said, by how many who aren't normally associated with the product. I once told the pastor of the church I was going to that he had been compared to Jim Jones and we were all just a bunch of brain-washed zombies according to a local radio personality. You'd think he just won the lottery. That's when he told me that he must be doing something right because he was under attack from the outside.

So, what brought this about? Interestingly enough, an e-mail that somebody had forwarded to me. (Thanks to Richard Balsley for sending it on to me). It was from a "concerned parent" who wanted everybody to know the evils inherent in e-wrestling.

To paraphrase it, it pretty roundly bashed wrestling saying that we all know about the bad stuff that goes on there, the blatant sexuality, the violence, etc. It further compared e-feds to D&D in that it's all roleplaying. This, in and of itself isn't too far from stuff that we've all heard before.

However, the original writer then went on to blame one specific e-fed for turning her son into a druggie.

Pardon me?

I just find it incomprehensible how anybody can jump to this conclusion. Sounds like a grieving parent trying desperately to find out what went wrong. Of course, anything involving roleplaying must be bad, and of course it's wrestling. Yeah, that must be it. (Or as Jon Lovitz would say, "Yeah, that's the ticket").

Sorry, I don't mean to belittle this aggrieved parents anguish as I feel bad for her. However isn't it time we all just cut past the easy answers, the quick fixes and look to the root problem here? I doubt very highly that any of the other roleplayers encouraged his drug habit, or even mentioned it.

The feds that I have been privileged to have associated myself with were just fun, and did nothing to glorify the use of drugs.

Then again, doesn't this point up another facet of life? As parents, we need to be aware of what our children are doing. We can't count on society raising them for us, or them raising themselves. I am a parent, and even if I don't know 100% of what my kids are watching, or reading, or listening to, I do know enough to pop in on them occasionally to see what's on the TV in their room, or what games they are playing. They are still young enough that they don't get on the net without their mother or I putting them up there, and then the computer is in the living room where we can keep an eye on them.

However, should one of them stray, and start heading down a path that we don't approve of, we're not going to blame Harry Potter books, the internet, or wrestling for it. I'm raising my kids to learn how to make decisions on their own. We'll provide guidance, and we'll continue to monitor their habits as long as they live under our roof. And I only hope that I have the wisdom to see a problem developing before it becomes a major crisis.

I'll admit that when I was younger (a child of the 50's and 60's, just the right age for the "Age of Aquarius"), I made some wrong choices. However it wasn't because the TV told me to, or because the records had subliminal messages. I did it because it was "cool", and because my friends did it.

So, is the e-fed responsible for drug use? Or is it something a little closer to home. Like peer pressure?

Jerry Root
[slash] wrestling

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