Thursday, April 11, 2013

Hype

Jumping up on my soapbox this morning to rail against the news media and the part they play in turning us into a nation of quivering Chicken Littles.

You remember the character from your nursery school days, right? - 
the sky is falling, the sky is falling... 
calamitous events at every turn.


Think of her whenever you watch the news!

It's not an economic correction - its the worst recession since the Great Depression!
It's not a teenage dictator, eager to play with his latest weapons - its the start of a nuclear holocaust!
It's not a handful of people dying from the flu - its an pandemic!
It's not a winter snowstorm - it's the storm of the century!
It's not a routine thunderstorm in the Midwest in spring  - its an impending tornado!

OMG, people - Chill the f*ck out!!

Do terrible things happen? Yes
Do 'weather events' impact and sometimes end lives? Of course.

But advising us to scurry in to hiddy holes every time the sky darkens and instilling fear into the marrow of our bones is NOT helpful. (Not to mention what it's doing to the psyche of the kids watching this drivel!)

It's not a good sign that I'm ticked already - and tornado season hasn't even hit top gear here in the middle of the country. (Can you tell we had storms last night - with all the media frenzy that goes along with it?)
Turn off the news, 
put down the devices with 'storm trackers' -

look out your doors, 
see what's happening 
and 
go about your lives!!

The plus side of having been a single parent for decades - with no partner to turn to for reality checks when you were uncertain or scared - is that it tends to make you more comfortable with trusting your own instincts.

If I had allowed my life to come to a screeching halt every-time I was afraid, I'd have been in a catatonic ball in a corner of my house - and how would that have solved anything!?

You could always go buy cute baby clothes like I did... 
a good storm really clears extra shoppers out the stores!


You can't be a baby in our family without 'bibbers'!

And look on the bright side...

you can always use 
downed tree branches
for a centerpiece.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love love love what you said here, and you cracked me up in the mean time. I so agree with you on this, and as bad as the national media is, I think the local guys are worse. They drive me crazy. Enough already.Nice post.