By Shelly Voss

   I was horrified to watch my little brothers sniping civilians in an airport yesterday.

   Kids these days! We entertain ourselves with violence, sex, crude jokes that aren’t funny at all, and breathe things into our lungs and minds that were never intended to be.

   Innocence and purity used to be applauded once upon a time. But at an age that is increasingly younger, both are regarded with scoffing and eye-rolling. I remember being a little princess, I mean, girl! Life was a joyful haze of dollhouse, slumber parties, gymnastics, soccer, building forts and reading book after book. It breaks the heart of my inner little princess…oops…girl! (Who is quite alive and thriving!) to look around at the little girls of 2010 and see virtually none of that.

   It’s all “Hannah Montana”, Webkins, iPods, and cell phones. (Not to mention the recent influx of preteen Facebooks.) And I don’t know about you, but I was generally steered away from PG13 movies before I was 13, not taken to R-rated movies at 5. We have all become so ridiculously desensitized; we are all a part of the demolition of childhood.

   Maybe I’m overreacting or “being a girl” (as my 11 year old brother put it as the blood of his fellow Russian terrorist splattered all over the TV screen) but recently I’ve wondered: Call of Duty, American Pie, Lady Gaga, the Saw movies…and all the other lovely, noble things we fill our minds with…

   Maybe it’s time we started edging the lines back to where they once firmly stood.

   Whatever happened to the Cleavers?