THINKING ALOUD…..WELL, WRITING IN PRIVATE
Is it any wonder that with the reporting ad nausea of petty political skirmishes that we turn to the likes of Entertainment Tonight, The Kardasians, ”reality shows”, and internet searches for brain stimulation. We are challenged daily to accept the repeated stories of whether or not this or that political aspirant said or did not say, voted or did not vote for a war, a tax, a program. We are asked to decide whether or not it is pure fabrication of fact that is repeated over and over, or if there is some tiny smidgen of truth as to the birthright of a candidate ( is he or is he not AMERICAN by birth or an imposter), if they are loyal to our values, if they are trying to take our guns away and steal our right to own them. I am for one totally fed up. I do not think that there is a scintilla of fact in most of what the “news” media reports. It is all about ratings and getting their point of view to be followed as fact. Fox News led the way, but alas, the others have followed suit and now adhere just as recklessly to presenting their views as the real truth. The stories on local news are repeated at least four or five times a day. Honestly, they could read these stories once, record them and just play again at the designated “news” times. The anchors could go home and enjoy their families…..there is nothing different. Even the weather reports are repetitive and boring. No need to record the news to view later, it will surely be repeated at five, five thirty, six and ten after originating at the four, five and six a.m. news that morning. (Unless, of course, the morning news is repeating the previous nights news which happens far more often than I care to admit.) But I digress.
Never have I yearned more to know less about candidates than I do presently. I do not believe that President Obama is the worst president in history, that George Bush deliberately deceived the American people to start a war (although I do think that he was a derelict in listening to his Vice President and others about the validity of WMD’s being in possession of Saddam Hussein and became an opportunist thinking wrongly that by unseating that leader that we would resolve the problems of the middle East quickly and prove our power and strength to the world). The mere fact that they missed the true threat of terrorists to our world is pretty appalling. I do believe that President Obama inherited the worst economic situation in our history and that relentlessly those who oppose him or opposed him will stop at nothing to hang the woes of the failed economy on him. I believe that Universal Health Care as it is presently applied has flaws that need to be corrected, but that as a country we should work together to resolve those problems and provide care to all Americans. I believe that we desperately need to reform the way our government (state, local, federal) help those who are unemployed, homeless, living on welfare are served. Some are given more than they deserve monetarily and others nothing at all. We do not apply standards of conduct that equally and expect hourly paid workers to discern the validity of claims with expertise that frankly leads to huge mistakes and abuses.
cmnjenewman 