Robby O’Daniel
Chief Copy Editor

It started when cavemen somewhere in the middle of what is now rural Kansas, a long time ago, started hitting each other in the head with clubs. It signified an ancient, yet beloved, custom of communication.
Then one of the cavemen — we’ll call him Frank — started using the charred remains of human skulls to carve out crude images in the walls of the caves.
After he accomplished this astounding feat — which was always overshadowed by the more-popular wheel invention — the cavemen were conducting business meetings in formal wear and talking about “synergy” within days. The new technology of skull images had changed all their lives for the better.
This brings me to the relatively new invention of the video chat Web site Chatroulette. Again, like the images on the cave, Chatroulette has always been and will always be overshadowed by its more-popular cousin Russian Roulette. But more people should really talk about this amazing invention that has brought together so many over its short life span.
It’s been popular ever since, like, the late ‘80s to say that the Internet is bringing the world closer together. And in a way, this is true because the Internet allows for people who lack social skills to not cry themselves to sleep every night and instead, slowly but surely become functioning members of society that will vote Republican and go to church three days a week.
But Chatroulette goes so much farther than this. With its wondrous magic, it allows for users to spin the wheel and link up with anonymous — and always innocuous — random strangers. What on earth could one possibly do that could be more entertaining, informative or inspiring to the human spirit on a Friday night or a Saturday night than get on Chatroulette and chat with 50-year-old men, without their shirts on, for upwards of 10 hours?
It brings tears to one’s eyes to think that it’s not just “Dateline NBC” and Chris Hansen that can bring together groups of people and support them without judgment. It’s amazing that no one has taken advantage of the Chatroulette technology for their own personal or selfish pleasure. What great people everyone are!
While Chatroulette has a language barrier, with many people frequently saying words like “Englese?” and “Que?” it shows the triumph of the human spirit that we can work past this visually by communicating ideas over video. All these ideas, of course, are socially acceptable and never perverted Lifetime movie-of-the-week material.
And it’s encouraging when one occasionally sees a child on Chatroulette, knowing that parents are so, so committed to protecting their children from online predators that they will allow them to go on a service where every fifth connection is a shot of a person but not of their face, per se.
There are so many things right about Chatroulette that America and, yes, the entire globe is fully and 100 percent in support of the marvelous invention. Like the radio, the television and the eight-track player before it, Chatroulette is poised to not only change the way we communicate but also take over the globe. There is no possible way that Chatroulette will simply become a passing fad in the annuls of history, with its own segment on VH1’s “I Love the ‘10s” in 2020. Chatroulette has so much more depth and importance than that.
Please, if you have any hope for this future or any possible alternate futures that involve Batman being the bad guy and The Joker being a crime-fighting vigilante, go onto Chatroulette and participate in what is sweeping the nation, a force of love and peace that will usher in the next generation of worthwhile individuals. God bless Chatroulette.