News, Schmooze

The time in my life before I met Jav and started having kids, I became a news junkie.  NPR was my link to all news in the world.  I listened before work, in the car on commutes, and sometimes curled up before going to sleep with my portable radio, listening to the BBC late into the night.  I felt very well-informed, and like I could have intelligent conversation and debate about pretty much any current event.  After I had Gabriel, I noticed a drop in my tuning-in ability, of course.  But I still kept up with foreign affairs and big news events.  After Joel, though, not so much.  Even though he's 3-1/2 now, I will go still weeks without tuning in.  I signed up for NPR emails for Breaking News, just after the big Tsunami hit Japan, because I had no idea what people were talking about at work and felt kind of silly.

Because I only listen to a National/World type news report, I rarely know that much about what's happening in my state or city.  I think local TV news is a joke.  They spend more time talking about celebrities than important things happening in the world.  When did Justin Bieber's hairstyle change become NEWS?  And the local newspaper is not much better, changing their look to more USA Today-style than a traditional newspaper.  You have to dig deep within those pages to find what I consider to be actual news.

My lack of time spent learning what's happening in the world weighs on me at times.  I now could not speak very wisely about many things happening out there in the big bad world.  My lack of community/social involvement gets to me, too.  I have many issues that are important to me, the biggest of which is the environment of this beautiful planet we live on.  To me if this issue doesn't start getting more attention, all the bickering we do about the other stuff is not going to seem very important.  When you start not having enough water for crops to feed people or fresh water for people to drink, I doubt many folks are going to be too concerned about the petty things humans can find themselves arguing about.  But this is an issue that gets largely ignored in the news cycle.  When an issue is that big, and seems unsolvable, what is there to report on?

I also get frustrated because there seems to be so many issues that people are just on TOTALLY opposite sides, not willing to budge an inch or even listen to intelligent debate from the other side.  Gun rights, immigration, abortion, racial issues, equal marriage rights, the list goes on and on and ON.  When you have two factions who feel so passionately about something, but are on totally different sides, how do you figure out an issue?  How do you figure out any issues anymore?  Instead of working through it with intelligent and reflective conversation, people say they are taking their stand to the death and NOTHING ever gets done that makes anyone happy.  I can't decide if our representatives have become big spoiled babies, or total namby-pambies, answering to their special interest groups and coffers instead of addressing their constituents' needs.  Neither type of person is who I want my kids to turn out to be.  It's hard to believe these are people that have been elected into office and are representing me.

So lately I find myself not so concerned about missing the news.  In fact, I think I am actually avoiding it these days.  It's all really enough to just make me throw up my hands and concentrate on my own little world, giving little regard to the bigger things happening outside of it.  I know that this may bite me in the long run, but until things either change dramatically in the way news is reported, or local, state and national government members figure out ways to compromise and get things done, then so be it.  Maybe I'll win the lottery and have more time to explore issues and figure out how to change things I don't like.