In light of the tornado’s in Alabama last week I am writing this article.
One of the main reasons I cut my cable off and disconnected the TV is how the news is poured into our minds. It is nothing but doom and gloom. I am not making light of the devastation in Alabama, what happened here is terrible and I can not imagine what these people are going through. Whenever I am going through a difficult situation and think I have it tough, all I have to do is talk to a neighbor. I realize then my problems are minuscule. There is a saying that I repeat often, “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.” It keeps things in perspective for me.
Back to the TV thing. I have friends in the media business, and I know that they are just reading what is put in front of them. I believe if they were able to tell it as they would like to, it would be a lot different. In my opinion, the sole purpose of the media is to keep us uneasy and depressed. We did not need an update daily about the unemployment rate, we all knew it was bad and still is. I was told that one station here in town cancelled all programming so they could focus on the devastation in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Hour after hour this was shown. I had seen that which was posted on facebook, and told to me by friends and that is it. And it’s not that I don’t care, because I do. I have chosen not to be inundated with bad stuff 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Don’t get me wrong, I have watched TV since I had the cable cut off. There is a TV at work because Darlene likes the noise and her soap opera. She gets three channels, and that seems more than enough for me. At my friend Bryan’s house, his TV stayed on 24/7 for the noise. He left the TV on during the day for his dog also. I prefer the silence when I get home. I did want to watch the wedding last Friday, but I did not. I didn’t think any of my friends would have wanted me knocking on their doors at 3 am.
The sad part about the devastation here is that just as soon as some other catastrophe happens somewhere in the world, or more breaking news takes place like bin Laden, people will forget about Alabama. No different than Haiti New Zealand or Japan. They are all still dealing with the devastation in their country, but it isn’t new news anymore and so we forget and move on to the next doom and gloom story.
Take a close look at the crap that is on TV these days and you will understand where I am coming from. Don’t get me wrong, there are some excellent programs out there, but there is more junk. Our morals have gone to pot based on the shows now, and we wonder what is wrong with our kids. It stops with me.
This is my journey…
In our world only negative events are news; rarely do positive stories get reported. That’s your journey…to balance the crap.
And that I will!