> "I was worried for the stabbing victim, certainly, but mostly I kept being curious about what would next develop instead of being terrified that this was going on so close to home."
>
> Thank you, violent media, for all that desensitizing!

I'm not so sure I would call it desensitization to violence when a human being, faced with an incident of impersonal violence, does not completely cease to function, so overwhelmed is one by the aghast horror that bad things happen in life.

I actually do an issue with violent media. I just finished watching "Gladiator," a movie that tries to be important and purposeful enough to justify its violence (as did "Braveheart") but is ultimately just a summer blockbuster entertainment. It bothers me that there is a demand for our mindless entertainment to be so graphic, but I suppose today's society is still a lot better in that regard than the times "Gladiator" portrays, during which actual death and gore in the arena were how the masses found their mindless entertainment.

But to suggest that it is desensitization to violence when someone faced with a violent situation is not so traumatized as to be incapable of thinking about anything but the horror of it is silly. If that were the "natural" human reaction to emergencies, we'd have died out long ago. When emergencies happen, whether we're involved or on the sidelines, we're built so that our wits sharpen, not dim, and a surge of adrenaline keeps us capable of thinking and acting to keep the situation in hand. It's not *natural* to agonize over the horror of something until it's all over and things are secure again. Until that time we are built so that we respond sensibly and efficiently. In Cynthia's case, of course, there wasn't much to do -- except, as she did, wonder about what was going on next, because that's what living beings instinctively do to survive.

It wouldn't surprise me if, later, when it was all over and the post written, the reality sunk in, and *then* she started to think about how horrible it was that an actual stabbing occurred outside her front door. I'm pretty sure I would. But it wouldn't surprise me if she didn't, either, because the fact is that bad things happen every day, and it doesn't take violent media for us to realize this and accept that violence is a part of life.