text: I like Ms. Patkotak's articles as a rule, and I am politically sympathetic with her, but I am older, also. There was nuclear grandstanding, there was the development of MIRV nukes, neutron bombs, of course there was the Cuban missile crisis. As Vietnam heated up there was the international image of a Buddhist monk setting himself on fire, of a young Vietnamese girl running from napalm with all her clothes burned off. On the terrorism front there was the red army faction shooting up airports, the PLO and Black September movement blowing up planes, attacking cruise ships, and killing Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Oh, we had a lot of fun in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
  There may well be LESS violence now than in days of yore. The difference being that courtesy of the internet and sites such as youtube we have no time delay and no distance from events that occur anywhere on the planet. We have more exposure and less sense of proportion.
  As time goes by we will learn to parse the news.