The prominent front page headline of the The Star Ledger read: NO REMORSE, JUST    BRAVADO.   A steely faced young man stared up at me, the words of his callous phone texts following the brutal beating of a husband and father captioned near his mouth. As I read the account of the savage, fatal attack on a man out for a walk with his wife and two children, I felt physically ill. It’s not the first time young people have perpetrated such horrific violence, but for some reason the lack of remorse evidenced by these five young men, four of whom were not yet 18, sickened me. I could only wonder what so many have wondered before me: What leads our children to such hate and violence?

Since then, the words of Graham Nash’s popular song have been playing in my head: “You who are on the road must have a code that you can live by, and so become yourself because the past is just a good bye. Teach your children well …”

In a 2009 National Public Radio interview, Nash recounted that the inspiration for this 1968 song came from a famous photograph entitled, “Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City.” The image, snapped in 1962 by famed US photographer Diane Arbus, served as the impetus for Nash to reflect on the impact of violent messages given to children.

It is a reality that continues to warrant reflection today as we approach 2011.

(The full column will appear later this month in The Catholic Spirit newspaper and will be posted in its entirety after that. In the meantime, you may want to follow Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association. It's an interesting issue.)