By Danielle Rehor

We are all taught as small children that fighting is bad and not to punch your little sister in the nose. But what about the guys on TV? What about Sergeant Martin Riggs and Sergeant Roger Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon? It is acceptable for them to be violent because their victims are the bad guys?

As children, we are always told do not fight or argue with our siblings, parents, or friends. We must get along with others or else we are told we will have no friends. We are warned time and time again to follow the golden rule.

If we are not to fight, why can the guys on TV and in the movies do it? They scorn the bad guys, they fight, often kill them, but they do not get in trouble. In fact, they get rewarded: they get the fast cars, the hot chicks, and have the loyal best friends.

Just like the violent good guys get rewarded, shows such as “Bad Girls Club” pay people to badmouth others and fight with each other. People actually watch shows that are about people who cannot control their emotions, so they cuss them out.

If we are always watching movies where some guy is just pulverizing anther person, does that influence our actions at all when we are angry or upset?

If we do not learn how to control ourselves at a young age, we will grow up and will not know how to handle ourselves in a professional environment. We get some bad news or someone else gets the promotion we wanted, what do we do? We cannot punch our boss in the nose or key our coworker’s car as they would in a reality TV show. We do not have the same heroic freedoms as the people in those shows.

We have to learn, before getting out in the real world, that violence rarely ever solves problems.

It agitates problems, causes people to stop talking, and severs relationships. But it does not solve problems.

While on vacation once, we rented a condo and apparently parked our boat in the wrong spot. When we woke up to drive to the lake, we could not. Some one had gotten so mad they took the air out of two tires of every single car in the parking lot, keyed our boat, and poured beer on someone’s dashboard.

How does that help a situation? If anything it took us longer to leave their parking spot because we had to fix the tires. The people automatically assume that we parked there just for convience, when in reality we didn’t know better.

So the next time we see something wrong being done, do not just assume it was purely malice and not a mistake. The next time we feel like popping an annoying kid in the mouth, take a step back, compose yourself and walk away. Do not be a Dr. Hannibal Lecter, because we all know that is not going to end well.