Too Young To Be A Conservative, Too Old To Be A Liberal

After switching topics multiple times and worrying myself into a frenzy for the past five days, I have finally settled on a topic for my column. Now I must choose whether I use this one for this Thursday or next Thursday. I have to turn in two this week because I am going to New York Thursday and will not have time to write a column while on vacation. However, it would be kind of cool to write a column from New York and e-mail it in. I would be like Carrie from Sex and the City.

I’ve decided I’m at a peculiar age in my life. While things used to be so clear and set in stone, there was no gray area, now things sometimes contradict what I used to think and ideals run together every so often.
Youthful minds usually lean towards the liberal left with comments like, “If it’s too loud, you’re too old,” and “Just one puff won’t hurt.” This is what I used to be like, but now I complain about the youth of America being too broadminded and not respecting their elders, which I sadly am one of now.
A perfect example of where I am torn in life’s tough issues is cable television. I am a huge fan of The Shield, the gritty, genuine cop show on FX starring Michael Chiklis. Some older viewers may know Chiklis better as The Commish. The Shield sometimes shows images and situations that even I, a 24-year-old male, am uncomfortable to watch.
When a compromising situation with a gang-banger and another male are shown or a half-naked woman posing the outline of her breast is displayed, I think to myself, “Can this be shown on television?”
Cable has become what NBC, ABC and CBS were 10 years ago, normal television. If someone says cable television today, most people probably think of HBO, Cinemax and Showtime.
What is appropriate now for cable television? To answer this question, I become two different people. The conservative Matthew Brandon Cook, reporter for the Ennis Daily News, says children and young adults should not be subjected to such filth and violence. Then the abrasive, liberal Matt Cook, community extremist, responds with facts like it is cable television, it is shown at 9 p.m. and if they want to see violence they can watch the nightly news or get on the Internet and download videos of people doing insanely stupid acts of violence.
So which viewpoint is right? Should cable television be regulated like network television has been or should parents discipline their kids enough to not watch smut like The Shield or South Park?
I would like to say the answer is simple, but it’s not. We cannot shield people from what is going on in this world by channel blocking, but we also shouldn’t allow kids to do whatever they want or watch whatever they want.
Shows like The Shield are for entertainment value only. They are not trying to get the general public to do anything more than watch the show and produce ratings.
Cable was introduced so television could be edgy and new. It is a place for shows like The Shield to be run. It doesn’t show nudity, sometimes the occasional butt shot or silhouette of a female body part can be seen, but NYPD Blue has shown Dennis Franz’s rear before and that show is on network television.
My final resting place on this issue will be open-mindedness. Let the television series remain edgy and promiscuous. It is what FX is known for with series such as The Shield and Nip/Tuck.