{"id":533,"date":"2018-02-17T04:32:41","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T04:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/?p=533"},"modified":"2021-12-20T16:09:37","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T16:09:37","slug":"533","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/17\/533\/","title":{"rendered":"A letter to the boys &#038; young men of America."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A response to the mass shooting in Florida.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ntPxbuNgaF4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ntPxbuNgaF4&amp;list=PLx2fjgQoVdSfW8ioJLLzyQqkr_7ZND6J3\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO VIEW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The bodies aren\u2019t even cold yet and already you are being blamed.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-565\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting1.jpg?resize=401%2C260\" alt=\"\" width=\"401\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting1.jpg?w=401&amp;ssl=1 401w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting1.jpg?resize=300%2C195&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 401px) 100vw, 401px\" \/>Yes you.<\/p>\n<p>All of you.<\/p>\n<p>The boys and young men who will grow up to become one half of America\u2019s future.<br \/>\nOnce again, due to society\u2019s failure to raise you, to teach you, to properly guide you on your path to manhood, your mere existence is being held responsible for seventeen more deaths\u2014this time in Florida, and once again, at a school. The headlines of the last few days say it all:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 &#8220;Guns don&#8217;t kill people; men and boys kill people, experts say&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 -USA TODAY<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 &#8220;Michael Ian Black reacts to Florida shooting: Boys are broken&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/em><strong>\u00a0 -New York Daily News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 &#8220;How Gun Violence And Toxic Masculinity Are Linked, In 8 Tweets&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 -The Huffington Post<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 &#8220;Toxic white masculinity: The killer that haunts American life&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 -Salon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u00a0&#8220;Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Us&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 -The Boston Globe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 &#8220;Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Us&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 -Harpers Bazaar<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0 &#8220;Don\u2019t Blame Mental Illness for Mass Shootings; Blame Men&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 -Politico<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-566 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting2.jpg?resize=575%2C208\" alt=\"\" width=\"575\" height=\"208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting2.jpg?w=575&amp;ssl=1 575w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting2.jpg?resize=300%2C109&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting2.jpg?resize=460%2C166&amp;ssl=1 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the handful of decades I\u2019ve been alive, I\u2019ve seen America shift from a culture of responsibility to one of blame. We don\u2019t solve problems anymore. We cry, we pray for, we seek to find closure, and then finally, slaughter a sacrificial lamb for our sins. When I was young and Columbine happened, that lamb was\u00a0<em>Marilyn\u00a0Manson<\/em> and video games. Before that, it was <em>D&amp;D<\/em> and <em>Twisted Sister<\/em>. These days, though, as body counts continue to rise and excuses continue to vanish, the lamb America has chosen to sacrifice is you. Rather than take responsibility for the seeds we\u2019ve sown, the culture we built, and the disaster you\u2019ve been left to inherit, we as a nation have chosen to lie to ourselves. To listen and believe those who claim that the answer is simple: \u201cBoys are simply born bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As an aging Gen Xer watching this tragedy unfold, I can\u2019t help but look back at my youth and realize we were the dry run for this \u201ccrisis of masculinity\u201d as the media likes to call it. In my time I\u2019ve watched as fathers were pushed out of the home, separated from their children, and their role in society debased and devalued. Like you, I was taught male behavior was bad behavior. That I was broken and needed to be fixed. Drugs, therapy, mass socialization were required to save me from my most innate instincts\u2014<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-568\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting3-1.jpg?resize=403%2C204\" alt=\"\" width=\"403\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting3-1.jpg?w=403&amp;ssl=1 403w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/shooting3-1.jpg?resize=300%2C152&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px\" \/>\u2014the need compete.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014the drive to create.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014the urge to protect.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014the desire for female affection.<\/p>\n<p>Like you, I was told these instincts were not only wrong, but dangerous. That due to my Original Sin of being born a boy, I was destined to mature into a lustful monster and an oppressor of women. All this was burned into me before I even reached college, where campus policy actually assumed all men to be rapists waiting to happen.<\/p>\n<p>It isn\u2019t hard to see how we got here, to an age when America is more than willing to sacrifice its boys. To quote <em>Fight Club<\/em>, \u201cWe\u2019re a generation of men raised by women.\u201d And the women who raised my generation had a saying: <em>All men are pigs<\/em>. But there\u2019s another saying those same women were enamored with and that is: <em>The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-552\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/840-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/840.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/840.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/840.jpg?resize=460%2C613&amp;ssl=1 460w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/840.jpg?resize=680%2C907&amp;ssl=1 680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/840.jpg?w=840&amp;ssl=1 840w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>So here we are, coming close to fifty years of single mothers raising their boys as if they were animals. Two generations of young men raised to believe they\u2019re broken, immoral, and dangerous. That their natural state, if left unchecked and unmedicated, is a sexual ticking time bomb of rape and abuse. Half a century of academia peddling a grim version of history that holds your gender personally responsible for all the wrongs ever to have happened in the world. And a press, that at this very moment, is blaming YOU for every school shooting to have ever occurred.<\/p>\n<p>After all this, how could there <strong><em>not<\/em> <\/strong>be a crisis of masculinity?<\/p>\n<p>So to the boys and young men of America, believe me when I say it isn\u2019t you who should be apologizing for the state of our world today. This mess was set in motion long before you were born.<\/p>\n<p>You are not bad.<\/p>\n<p>You are not broken.<\/p>\n<p>You are not inherently evil or a sexual abuser in waiting.<\/p>\n<p>You are boys who were robbed of your right to be men.<\/p>\n<p>All your life you\u2019ve been told to act, think, and behave like women. To suppress your passions, your pride, your need to compete and drive to achieve.<\/p>\n<p>Now society is crumbling around us.<\/p>\n<p>Feminizing boys didn\u2019t make better men. It\u2019s resulted in broken homes and shattered families and record suicide rates. It\u2019s destroying any notion of a healthy partnership between men and women, and is pushing us ever closer to total collapse of gender relations.<\/p>\n<p>Boys, we don\u2019t need you to be like women, the world has plenty of women, already.<\/p>\n<p>What the world needs now more than ever is for you to be men.<\/p>\n<p>For you to grow-up, to grow strong, and do what men do.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-554 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Aldrin_Apollo_11-2.jpg?resize=253%2C400\" alt=\"\" width=\"253\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Aldrin_Apollo_11-2.jpg?w=253&amp;ssl=1 253w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Aldrin_Apollo_11-2.jpg?resize=190%2C300&amp;ssl=1 190w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 253px) 100vw, 253px\" \/>For it is men\u2019s strength and determination that tamed the wilderness, built civilization, and has kept the world fed despite all predictions we\u2019d all die starving before the year 2000. It\u2019s men\u2019s curiosity that lead us to explore the oceans, to conquer space, and peer into the tiniest of microcosms of the human body. It was men who built the cities we inhabit, the luxuries we enjoy, the medicines that keep us alive. Men built the road, the plumbing, the electrical grid, the phone in your hand, the internet it&#8217;s connected to.<\/p>\n<p>Men have always been innovators, explores, defenders, and leaders.<\/p>\n<p>But most importantly, men have always been fathers.<\/p>\n<p>So to the boys and young men of America, please read this and take every word to heart.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The world needs you.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>-J. Ishiro Finney, Feb 2018<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-538 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/columbine2.jpg?resize=294%2C286\" alt=\"\" width=\"294\" height=\"286\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A response to the mass shooting in Florida. CLICK HERE TO VIEW The bodies aren\u2019t even cold yet and already you are being blamed. Yes you. All of you. The boys and young men who will grow up to become one half of America\u2019s future. Once again, due to society\u2019s failure to raise you, to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-floridashooting-massshooting-floridamassshooting-msculinity-toxicmasculinity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9pWX2-533","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jishirofinney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/columbine2.jpg?fit=294%2C286&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1842,"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions\/1842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jishirofinney.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}