Sample Speech

Sample Speech

This speech was drafted for those who are involved in promoting the Turn Off the Violence campaign in their own communities.  You are welcome to use or adapt it as long as you do not violate the Seven Guiding Principles of Turn Off the Violence.

Your introduction should provide a brief "bio" of yourself giving information such as your background, why you're affiliated with TOV, etc. Include information that will help to answer the question, "Why is this person here?"

Open your speech with a fact, anecdote, or quotation chosen to grab your audience's attention. You will find a number of such resources enclosed in this Guide. . . .OR . . . relate your personal account of why you're involved with Turn Off the Violence if it's an appropriate story for your audience.

In the spring and summer of 1991, Minnesota experienced a series of highly publicized violent crimes. People were becoming afraid to pick up the newspapers for fear of what the latest headlines might bring. In mid-July, two police crime prevention specialists were mourning the latest murder victim and talking about the futility of prison sentences or the death penalty after the tragedies.

Finally, one looked at the other in desperation and said, "If we could just turn off the violence...! If we just had a knob.... If we could even just get people to turn off violent entertainment, wouldn't that be something!" The discussion turned to how ironic it is that as Americans we are horrified and baffled by rising rates of real-life violence and yet so many of us are also fascinated by violent television, movies and music.

Just months before, the Minneapolis Star Tribune had asked children to write to them about what they thought of violence on television and in movies. Among the most common refrains of almost 10,000 kids was, "I love violence. Violence is cool!"

The conversation at lunch that day was the spark that lighted the Turn Off the Violence campaign. The two crime prevention specialists began making phone calls to other organizations inviting them to a meeting to discuss the possibility of a coordinated public awareness campaign culminating in a "Turn Off the Violence Day." Twenty-five people from a variety of police departments, churches, schools, community organizations, and violence intervention agencies came to that first meeting and began preparations for the first Turn Off the Violence campaign. Since then, the campaign has grown to involve organizations and individuals all across the country sharing their time, talents, and resources to help "turn off the violence."

The Turn Off the Violence coalition developed 7 Guiding Principles to define the campaign.

1.  We will keep the campaign very SIMPLE. This is a positive campaign with two goals:   (1) to teach people legal, safe, and positive ways to deal with anger and conflict, and  (2) to  help  people  realize  that  violent entertainment influences our attitudes about the acceptability of violence ... and among all the influences on violent behavior, that is one influence we can choose to turn off.

2.  Turn Off the Violence is a COALITION. Our members have the strength of shared resources, shared knowledge, and shared purpose.

3.  Turn Off the Violence addresses all forms of violence. By defining violence as any time someone intentionally hurts another, with words or actions, we ask people to turn off violence in all its ugly forms -- physical violence, sexual violence, verbal violence, violence in entertainment, family violence, gang violence, hate crimes, and playground violence.

4.  Turn Off the Violence is INCLUSIVE of many groups. Because no fragment of society has been left untouched by violence, we believe it is important to involve as many groups and populations as we possibly can.

5.  Turn Off the Violence is a GRASSROOTS campaign. We encourage active participation by members in all phases of planning and implementation. We provide affordable, simple materials that empower individuals to take action and affect change in their own environments.

6.  Turn Off the Violence is NOT A CENSORSHIP project. As an organization we will not sponsor boycotts or compile lists of music, movies, or TV shows we think are violent. There's an old Italian proverb that says, "A book whose sale's forbidden, all men rush to see, and prohibition turns one reader into three." We encourage individuals to carefully consider and voice their opinions not only about what they believe is unacceptable, but also about what is good. 

7.  Turn Off the Violence is not the cure-all, but merely a first step.  Certainly there are a myriad of influences that shape violent attitudes and behaviors besides the electronic media. Among them are poverty, the cycle of family abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, the issues of self esteem, and the role of peer pressure. While researchers study and debate the causes of violence and the most measurably effective ways to counter them, we cannot sit idle waiting for definitive answers. There are no such things as definitive answers on this issue. We've got to just pick a place to begin and then get started. The increasingly violent images portrayed on television, in movies, and in music portray violence as an ordinary and often appropriate way of resolving conflict, demonstrating power, releasing emotions, and responding to everything from sexual desire to boredom to social injustice. Media violence is one kind of violence we can turn off. Then we can begin to teach our children appropriate ways of dealing with these challenges.

These are not huge, multi-faceted, expensive, complex responses. They're things the average person can do at home: turn off violent entertainment and find something positive to do, and when you're angry, solve your problems constructively, without hurting anyone. One might argue that this is too simplistic of a solution. It is SIMPLE, but that's not the same thing as simplistic. It needs to be simple so it can involve all of us.

As an individual, I feel very powerless to change the problems of racism or unemployment or drug abuse. I can't change the world, but I CAN change me.

I can change the way I solve problems in my own life with co-workers and friends and family and neighbors. I can teach my children how to solve problems peacefully. I can set a good example for other children in my life. I can turn off violent TV shows, music, movies, and video games. I can change my corner of the world! And that's what we need to teach our children. We need to teach them to learn all they can about the world so they can be informed voters, but ultimately, the way to change the world is for all of us to think first about our little corner of it. 

So, what's the first step in changing the world one little corner at a time? First, let's define violence. When we talk about violence in the schools, we can't leave our kids with the impression that kids carrying guns to school is the only violence we're concerned about. From the time they're in kindergarten, we need to teach them that violence is any time you hurt someone else on purpose. That can be with words or that can be with actions. That covers sexual harassment, physical violence, racism, hate crimes.... it's a definition that works for everyone from preschool through high school and it opens doors for discussion at any age level. "Violence is any time you hurt someone else on purpose. That can be with words or that can be with actions." 

Next, let's inspire our young people to imagine what it would be like to live in a world without violence. As impossible as that would be, they must have a vision to strive toward. Start by thinking about how your own life would change if there were no violence. Did you lock your car in the parking lot this morning? How much of your paycheck goes to pay for theft insurance, police protection, the military, security measures at the retail stores you shop in? Have you ever been afraid to walk or jog in your own neighborhood after dark? How about during the daytime? How many of the women in this room have ever been intimidated or afraid of a man because of the possibility of rape or sexual harassment? ..... Violence is limiting our lives. We must teach our kids how much more freedom we would all have if there were no violence. If we agree that freedom from violence is a right, then that places a responsibility on all of us to behave with respect toward each other. (All of our kids know their rights, they just don't think too often about the responsibilities that go with them.)

For a lot of our children it will be extraordinarily hard to even imagine a world without violence, probably for several reasons. For some of them, the world they live in doesn't offer much respite from family violence or the violence on their neighborhood streets. For others, television shows them that it's a mean world out there where everyone needs to look out for themselves. If you let your guard down, you're likely to end up as another statistic. Still others have learned to LIKE violence! It gets them what they want and it can be exciting. The first time one of our founders asked kids in a classroom to tell me how THEIR lives would change in a world without violence, a sixth grade boy said, "Well, it would be pretty boring. Like... like.. .there wouldn't be anything exciting happening in the world." His answer is chilling. Fortunately his classmates came up with wonderful, beautiful answers. They can imagine a world where you wouldn't need to lock your door at night or when you leave your house, a world where kids didn't tease each other unmercifully, where all the money we spend on locks and police and bombs could be spent on food for the hungry or computers for schools or playground equipment. Sometimes little kids tell us that in a world without violence Moms and Dads would never scream or hurt each other, no one would ever feel the need to drink alcohol or use drugs to escape bad feelings, the nightly news would be about good things, not scary things. Let's capture young people's imaginations with the possibilities of peace.

Third, let's turn off media entertainment that glorifies violence. You've probably heard some of the statistics. 

The average kid spends more time watching television than in school.

A recent study conducted by the National Institute on Media and the Family with 600 Minnesota 8th & 9th graders showed that kids who play violent video games tend to see the world as a more hostile and aggressive place; got into more arguments with teachers; were more likely to be involved in physical fights; and got worse grades in school. Surprisingly, it was the kids who are least naturally aggressive who were 10 times more likely to be involved in physical fights than other nonaggressive kids who don't play violent video games.

Noel Holston, television critic for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, has said, "If television can sell products, and indeed billions of dollars are spent each year in the belief that television does influence human behavior, then it can sell images and values." Television, movies, and music have a tremendous POTENTIAL to ENRICH OUR LIVES, EDUCATE US, and BRIDGE GAPS between generations, races, and cultures. They rarely strive toward that potential. There are wonderful exceptions, but some of the most common fare on television perpetuates stereotypes, fuels mistrust, and sometimes ignites violence. The question has been posed time and time again: Are television and movies and music simply reflections of our already-violent society or are they influences that shape our attitudes and behavior? The question is partly answered when we note that television characters are murdered at a rate 1,000 times higher than real-life victims. This is no mere reflection.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Surgeon General's Office, the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the American Psychological Association have all concluded that study after study shows a direct causal link between media violence and violent criminal behavior. 

But before we point the finger of blame entirely at the media, we have to think THE MEDIA?  about what motivates the media industry to keep producing media that glorify violence. It's us! The television, movie, music and video producers argue, with perfect sense, that they wouldn't produce it if people didn't watch it, listen to it, and play it. Day after day, night after night, many of us tune in to cop shoes, violent movies and cartoons, violent rap, rock, or country western songs, and sitcoms that make sexism, racism, and disrespect for other people seem funny.  Even though, as an adult, you may consider yourself less vulnerable to media violence, every time we choose to watch or listen to something that glorifies violence, we're counted in the ratings that help continue the production and accessibility of violence to some of the most "at-risk" kids in our society. 

Kids who are growing up in dangerous neighborhoods, sometimes in dangerous families, often spend even more time than the average consuming violent entertainment. These are the kids that will have a tremendous impact on our violent crime rates unless we can take positive steps to prevent it. Voice your opinions about violent entertainment and support efforts to produce and sell non- violent entertainment.

Several years ago we were all witnesses to the horrible violence that followed the acquittal of several police officers who beat up Rodney King. News crews were doing man-on-the-street interviews with citizens, the city was being burned and looted in the background, Tom Brokaw was narrating the chaos. We repeatedly saw video of Reginald Denny being dragged from his truck and being beaten. We repeatedly saw replays of Rodney King being beaten. As we watched in horror, the network broke TWICE for commercials for a movie called "Split Second" about "a cop who's taking back the city." I suspect that the irony and inappropriateness of that went right over most Americans heads because we've become so desensitized to violence.

There will be some who argue that if a child is growing up in a home where someone is providing appropriate values -- and I don't care how you define "family values," one parent, two parents, grandparents -- if someone is providing appropriate values, then it doesn't matter what he or she is watching on television, he won't grow up to be violent.  Maybe. But you and I know that for a variety of reasons, a growing number of kids in this country aren't growing up in homes like that. 

If you and I and all of us begin to turn off violent entertainment and write to the producers and advertisers, the market for violent entertainment will shrink and they'll stop producing it.

I want to stress that I'm singling out entertainment that GLORIFIES violence, not all violent entertainment. Has anyone here seen a movie called "A Midnight Clear?" It was about a group of young soldiers in World War II. It is a very violent movie, but the violence was portrayed as a tragedy, with real human victims who had families who loved them. It showed that there were victims and bad guys on both sides of the conflict. It didn't portray all Germans as vicious, inhuman, or stupid and it didn't portray all of the allied troops or American soldiers as courageous, virtuous, or smart. The violence in a movie like that is very different from the violence in a movie like Terminator in which the point of the movie is to splash as many bodies across the screen as possible before the credits roll up. And, by the way, no matter what the context, young children should never be exposed to violent entertainment. With older children, it depends on their ability to deal with the subject matter. No matter how old we are, we should always be shocked by portrayals of violence. And that's one of the problems. We're not shocked any more. Dr. Carol Wirtschafter, a Developmental Psychologist who has developed classroom exercises using oral histories of the Holocaust has noted that many high school students seem to find Holocaust depictions of nudity more difficult to deal with than the depictions of death, which they see so often on television and in movies. Some may argue that even fairy tales and Mother Goose rhymes are violent. But think about it a minute.  The violence in rhymes and fairy tales is only as explicit as your imagination will let it be. And, most kids aren't exposed to an average of four hours of violent fairy tales a day! 

Next, consider how you deal with anger and conflict, because you can't pummel peace into a child... and you can't scream about respecting other people.  Anger is a normal human emotion that sometimes serves a useful purpose.  Conflict is normal. It's a necessary, even useful force, that encourages change and growth. But how you deal with conflict and anger can be either constructive or destructive.

There are basically three ways that people express anger: there's passive anger, aggressive anger, and assertive anger. You all probably know someone who expresses anger aggressively, someone who blames other people for their anger. Phrases such as, "You make me so mad!" are common. It's not a healthy way of solving problems and oftentimes provides the set-up for a violent confrontation. Likewise, you all probably know someone who deals with anger passively, keeping the anger inside. . . or at least they try to. As an example, when something's bothering a passive person and you ask them what's wrong, they're likely to say "nothing" and walk away. It's hard to work resolve a problem with someone who deals with anger this way because they won't even acknowledge the problem let alone work with you to work it out.

People who respond assertively when angry continue to treat the other person with respect. They acknowledge that they're angry without placing all the blame on the other person and without humiliating the other person.

Let's talk about some strategies for dealing with anger constructively. The first PHYSIOLOGY    step is to recognize the way your body feels when it's angry. Do your muscles tighten? Does your heart pound? Do your palms get sweaty? Recognize your anger. Now take control of it. Take a deep breath, (or two or three), count to ten, (or 100 or 1000). If necessary, remove yourself from the situation to take some time to "chill out!" Think about what's making you angry. Now, probably the only way to resolve the situation is to face the person with whom you're having the conflict.

Often, choosing the time and place you face the other person will make a difference in the outcome.  Choose a time when the other person seems willing to listen and choose a place that is private. Remember to stay focused on the problem, don't make a personal attack on the other person -- no name-calling, no insults, no threats, and no fair bringing up the past. If you treat the other person's feelings with respect, you're more likely to get a respectful response and a positive resolution to the problem. Give each other the opportunity to speak uninterrupted and listen with an open mind. Once each has had an opportunity to give their side, take turns suggesting how the problem can be resolved until you agree on the solution.

Sometimes when a conflict has been left unresolved too long, it becomes more difficult to deal with. Mediation is a process where one or two impartial people assist people to work out their problems in a safe environment.

Some of these ideas can be taught to children by changing the words to the familiar song, "If You're Happy And You Know It." Let's change the words to: "If you're angry and you know it." What can you do when you're angry? ...count to ten (or a hundred or a thousand); ...tell a friend; ...take a deep breath ... and let it out slow (meditate); ...take a walk (exercise); One little kindergartner suggested, "take a nap." [Ask the audience to come up with other verses.]

There are other ways you can help "turn off the violence."

On October 11, 2001, turn off the violence in your life. Turn off violent entertainment. Be conscious of the ways you resolve conflict and begin on that day to choose positive, non-violent ways of resolving conflict and being entertained.

Visit the Turn Off the Violence website at www.turnofftheviolence.org for more information about Turn Off the Violence.

Take some time to see what's on television, movies, and radio in your area.  Imagine a seven year old sitting next to you as you watch and listen to some of the programs being offered. Even though you may not normally watch a lot of television, consider the effect some of these shows are having on young people.  Look up the names of advertisers, producers, and distributors of violent media entertainment in the business directory reference section of your local library and let them know that you want non-violent entertainment.

Reproduce the Turn Off the Violence handout (without changes) and pass it on to family, friends, and co-workers.

Arrange to have information about the Turn Off the Violence campaign included in your school, office, or faith community newsletter.

Ask your school district, principal, or your child's teacher to include creative conflict resolution concepts into their lesson plans.

Join or start a Turn Off the Violence committee in your community. We have an Organizer's Guide to help people begin their own campaigns. It's filled with advice from other people across the state who have planned their own local campaigns in past months.

Contribute to the campaign. Your tax-deductible donation will be gratefully accepted and will be used to help disseminate resources and information about "Turn Off the Violence" across the country.

Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

I urge you to become part of our campaign. I challenge you to turn off the violence in your homes, in your businesses, and in your community.

THANK YOU.