Friday, August 24, 2007

Media Reflects Our Shallowness

I tried to find some news on cable TV earlier today. What I found were court proceedings, one for a murderer and one for someone suspected of assault. Our nation is at war, our economy teetering, our health care system a farce and what we see on television is sensationalism. The subject matter may have a lurid fascination, but it is not national news. The coverage of sensational crime causes Americans to feel less safe, to think that there is more crime and more danger in every day life than there is. I would submit that more people die because of the failures of our health care system than from violent crime. Our elderly are abandoned to substandard care because we refuse to pay higher taxes, but that's not fun to report. You never see a report on the quality of life in a nursing home. Do we fear that if we improve nursing home care, more people will dump their elderly relatives? In my city, if you cannot drive, then your time is considered expendable. If you are disabled and have no one to drive you to doctors appointments, then you can expect to spend hours on a bus and wait hours for one after your appointment. The media does not cover this because the viewer is not interested in the reality of the old, the disabled or the poor. Those of us that call ourselves Christian need to demand we know what happens to the least among us.

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