A recent Associated Press feature said that if the whole world consumed oil as does America, with roads full of sports utility vehicles, Earth's oil reserves would be gone in 10 years. As the average size of households has shrunk from 3.27 people in 1966 to 2.62, the average size of the American home has grown 50 percent since 1970, from 1,500 square feet to 2,260 square feet. Suburban-sprawl dream homes commonly surpass 5,000 square feet. With such space, televisions have mutated from 19-inch sets to earthquake home theaters with screens wider than a car. The refrigerator will notice when the beer supply is low and order a case for next-day delivery.'' Bigger cars.
Recent events raise a more haunting possibility.
As cars and houses become bigger, we may be losing our children in them. Students in Philadelphia, St. Petersburg and Bradenton, Fla., Covington, Wash., and Elm Grove, Wis., were arrested with guns, several of them loaded. Around the nation, in California, Michigan, Iowa, Virginia, Arizona, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, over 20 students were arrested or suspended in the last three weeks after making threats to shoot or bomb classmates. We can give our children computers and private bedrooms with skylights, but with those televisions delivering violent, vengeful entertainment in ever more digital detail, we must consider whether we are defeating our best intentions. It is obvious that when many of our boys and a few of our girls become angry, they no longer look for hugs from mommy or daddy.