This is disturbing. We, as a culture, are growing in our desire to forget, disappear and remain anonymous. We don't want to be reminded of anything ugly, sad, tragic, yet that's part of our story and part of what makes us who we are. I think the more this happens, the more vacant and empty our culture will become.

Chilling.

Random ramblings:

This "baby" attitude seems to have seeped into the workplace. You may be given the type of assignment you've handled brilliantly for 10, 15, or 25 years, and chances are pretty good it will be accompanied by a paternal/maternal, "You'll call Joe? You'll make sure there's weekly reporting? Do you need help going to the potty?"

As for NIU, the Chicago Tribune rightly pointed out a crazed killer shouldn't be allowed to change the campus. That means he wins.

Allowing terrorists to make us crave "safety," whatever its cost in lost civil liberties, bureaucracy, and dollars, means the terrorists win. I expect reasonable precautions. Safety? Please. The world has never been, is not, and will never be even a close approximation of "safe."

I'd like to say we're adults, not babies, but then all I have to do is read the comments on the Chicago Tribune site, any number of blogs, or messages on message boards, and I wonder. The lack of maturity can be stunning -- and it's not only, or even mainly, from the younger people.

There's the babying crowd, and then there's the crowd that thinks anyone should be able to tough anything out. Get over it already!

I want my blankie.

Eileen, Diane, beautifully said.

"the crowd that thinks anyone should be able to tough anything out"

Yes, I generally pick on this crowd. But the baby crowd is just as bad, because it gives the "tough it out crowd" so much fodder!

Diane...my daughter Lily rotates through five "Babies" (what she calls her blankies). She's five. In my mind, the world is scary, so she can hang onto those blankies as long as she wants. I'd be happy to send you one...we've been working on sharing, so Lily won't mind.

I agree with the above comments and will add my own. In high school, we didn't have a killer on campus, but we did lose classmates to alcohol-related accidents. We still had to go to class and sit in classrooms with empty seats for the rest of the year. They had counselors, etc., for us, but we had to learn how to cope with our loss and move on. The same concept holds true here.

If we apply the Chicago Tribune theory to other historical moments, then pretty much the world would be destroyed thanks to WWI and WWII, etc.

We cannot keep people from doing bad things. We are not "safe" in the world. We, as adults and parents, will do anything to protect our children. We, as adults, must also work hard to protect and educate ourselves as well as educate our children as they grow. No one program will be able to do this for us. I'm not talking vigilantism, I'm saying that there is no one answer to be employed. As the others have said before me, no more whining, unless you have a boo-boo and are under the age of five.

I have a real-world example of this insidious malaise:

During an open house prior to our daughter' s senior year at her catholic high school, I was impressed when her finance teacher outlined the rules he governed his class by.

"I tell your sons and daughters that there are only 2 rules in my class. First, I assume that they are old enough to know right from wrong. Second, I expect them to do the right thing. I usually don't have any problems."

This was driven more forcefully home a few days later when I challenged a particularly juvinile rule within our company. Sorry, I was told, we can't take the chance that people will follow the policy in the hand book so we have to restrict access.

"How about your treat everyone like adults", I demanded, only to get the vacant, deer in headlights stare indicating that I must either be a complete madman for suggesting such an idea or a dangerous subersive for, gasp!, thinking that anyone at our company could actually think for themselves (or be as responsible as my 17 year old daughter was expected to be)!

Any wonder why I am actively looking/interviewing for a change of venue?

This reminds me of when the current administration stopped allowing the press to attend and cover the return of service people killed after the Iraq debacle started. I remember Barbara Bush being quoted as saying something like: "People should not be subjected to those images" Excuse me?! Hello? Can you say "Ostrich syndrome"

This approach is precisely the one used by the dreaded (to the US anyway) communists as justification not to give people rights, i.e. "The government will take care of things so you don't need to be bothered with silly things like rights or freedoms." It's quite ironic to me that this argument is now being used (and quite successfully too it appears) to take away or limit virtually every freedom Americans have. And many are not only NOT objecting, they're actively encouraging this. Whodawa??

Rights and responsibilities go hand in hand. To effectively exercise either one, you need to understand and deal with the difficult realities that go along with living in the world. It's called being a grown-up.

As Diane said: "I expect reasonable precautions. Safety? Please. The world has never been, is not, and will never be even a close approximation of "safe." Bravo Diane!

The sooner we all get over the idea that pretending bad stuff doesn't exist actually means it doesn't exist and step up and participate to respond to it in a responsible adult manner, the better off we'll all be.

This reminds me of my favorite composition teacher at Kent, a gentle but firm guy Dr. Jack Null. A girl came to class one day without a paper that was due.

"My printer broke!" she said.

"'Fraid I'm going to have to mark the paper late," Null said. She whined more--"BUT MY PRINTER BROKE"!--but he was firm and she slumped off.

I happened to be standing next to him when he turned to me with a shrug and a smile: "She thinks God broke her printer."

Yeah, well, in my college days I typed written-out papers on a manual Royal typewriter, often taking all night to finish on time. Think Ms. Printer Broke could handle that, hmmm?

Taking tongue out of cheek, is it possible technology helps make us babies? My dad (born 1913, died 2001), between growing up on a farm, going to war, and finding an unskilled job that paid well, never had a chance to be a baby and therefore never was. If you had to type your fingers to the bloody knuckles, that's what you did. That's what everyone did.

Well, we do not understand how computers work, and are helpless to fix them if they break, which forces us to put our fate in Geeks' hands. (And as everybody knows, they are not loving Geeks. They are vengeful Geeks.)

All of which makes us about as self-sufficient as your average baby.

So yeah: You've got a point.

Really? I have a great relationship with all my IT Geek friends. Just recently I asked if I was on a schedule to get a new computer, and although I wasn't, I am getting one. Then there was the day an IT Geek thought it would be nice if I had one of the first big flat screens. A while later, they decided I needed a new digital camera. It appeared with a, "Here's a new camera for you!"

So I have to say I love my Geeks. They are the best.

And I think it's vital that communicators have good relationships with their IT friends.