My Own Letter to Senator Clinton

Dear Senator Clinton,

Although I am not a direct constituent of yours, I have been a Democrat since I could vote and until recently thought that you would make the best choice for our party in the next Presidential election. Furthermore, I have been a longtime supporter of both you and your husband. Your success story has always been an inspiration to me, and should I end up with a daughter when my wife and I make a choice to have children, I would certainly use you as a role model for her.

However, I have been following the recent controversy surrounding and generated by your comments related to the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," and I have begun to reconsider my support for you should our party nominate you as a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

It seems that many of your comments are not based on actual experience with the game, but on hearsay from your political advisors and organized parental groups who also have very little experience with the game itself. This has created a cascade effect to those of us who are familiar with the game, where you have appeared - to us - as though, quite frankly, you don't have a real clue about the subject matter. The effect is that you appear to be interested not in actual examination of the game itself, or a dialogue on the appropriate avenues for dispensation of adult entertainment.

The most troubling aspect of this situation is that you chose to push for investigation not because of the game's violent aspects, but for its sexual overtones. I have played through the game twice on two different systems. Both times, the in-game character killed over two thousand other in-game characters. If the character were classified as a serial killer (an appropriate label), he would have the dubious distinction of having killed more people than any other serial killer in United States history. The methods of killing vary: running over a team of police officers with a tank and crushing them to death; walking up behind a homeless person and slitting his throat; or even beating a woman to death with a bouquet of flowers.

More troubling is that the game has been on store shelves since late last year. Rockstar Games has an exclusivity agreement with Sony - for the first six months of sales, the game is only available on Sony's Playstation 2 console system. Therefore, one can only conclude that since you did not lead an inquiry into "San Andreas" late last year or earlier this year, that the thought of murdering an entire squad of SWAT team officers is socially acceptable - but the idea of having sex with a significant other is not. Intentional or not, that is the message you have communicated to our nation's youth - far more damaging, in my opinion, than seeing two adult video game characters make a choice about whom they wish to have as a sexual partner.

To further complicate matters, the sexual content you have described is only available on one gaming system - the personal computer. It is not available on the Playstation 2 or Xbox systems, nor will it ever be due to Sony and Microsoft's dilligence regarding the protection their source material. But the game does not come ready-made to simulate sex right out of the box, either: a user must find a third-party-created program called a "mod" (short for "modification"), as the publishers of "San Andreas" gave the user no way to access the sub-routine for the sexual content otherwise. As Rockstar has said, the sub-routine was originally supposed to be included in the game, but was removed without taking out all of the code. A third party found the code and exploited it - something for which you can hardly hold Rockstar accountable.

Unfortunately, the examination of "San Andreas" has resulted in the ESRB giving the game a different rating: "Adults Only" instead of its original "Mature" rating. This change has crippled Rockstar's sales of "San Andreas," as many stores will no longer carry the game because of it. However, this decision was not based on the game's ability to simulate cutting open a homeless person's throat with a knife and watching them bleed to death on the street, it was based on nudity and simulated sexual content that a user couldn't even access without an unauthorized third-party program. Again, if I were a teenager who understood the situation, I would look at the adults responsible and think "these morons are the ones in charge of my country?"

Additionally, other games featuring even more explicit sexual content - "Singles" and "The Playboy Mansion" - continue to carry the "Mature" rating, leaving one to conclude that "San Andreas" has been unfairly demonized by people who just don't know better.

Senator, what the United States needs is not politicians using a hot-button issue they do not fully understand for political gain. Rather, we need a dialogue about how a village of people (yes, I've read your book and I agree with it) need to support each other to prevent children from making poor decisions regarding these kinds of entertainment.

Parents need to be aware of what their children are purchasing and playing, or of what they are purchasing for their children. Clerks at stores need to know when it's acceptable to say "no." Teachers need to watch for warning signs that children might not be able to seperate fantasy from reality. These, Senator, are the kinds of long-term solutions that will lead to a healthy American society, not the kind of cheap political posturing that unfairly singles out one form of entertainment over another for the sake of gaining a few votes in the Red states. Frankly, those kinds of tactics are what seperates you from the Christian Right - until now, you have been the kind of politician to encourage dialogue and long-term change.

Senator, I urge you to educate yourself on the topic you have chosen - over so many other more relevant topics like the Iraq war, rising costs of health care, minimum wage, and campaign finance reform - and reconsider your stance. You are in a position to encourage the kind of dialogue we need. But, as you have seen, you are also in the position to cause trouble based on - pardon the phrase - your own ignorance of the topic.

Because you are still in the position to do the right thing and win my vote in the next Presidential election.

Sincerely,

Jason Mical