2000-03-12 - 02:12:28

Why do I read the newspaper ? Mostly to see if something happened I didn't expect, I guess. Of course the obits and then the funnies, the most common sense part of it. I quit watching the news on tv, news once a day in a format where I can lay it down and get up for more coffee and never miss a thing. Try that on your tv. Besides the tv news any more seems to be more entertainment oriented, the talking heads, men or women who have been gussied up, great clothes, great hairdos and obviously trained by some group who teaches them all the motions and head nods the the station seems to want. All that and they have to put humor in here and there and act tickled over some damn fool thing or another. With the commercials how many drops of news do we get ? Not enough to keep from evaporating before it hits the floor. The news, what there is is iffy too. Dan Thomasson in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News tells us just how screwed up our census people are - - - - maybe he'll get around to telling us all the different government screw ups. Naaah, he can't live that long. Betsy Hart goes into the bit about professional tragedy exploiters and slogan coiners who are now trying to convince us that guns run around by themselves killing people. I also note the fact that apparently nobody is trying to come up with a plan to remove children from unsavory environments and make sure the foster homes they are put in are safe for the kids. Nobody seems to be trying to educate people out of the "jock philosophy that leads to abuse of weaker, placid children. I know how that goes, as I was one of the "losers" and even then the "jock" way of life existed. I got knocked out of their way, heckled, hassled physically harassed by the as.h..e jocks. So the sports oriented lived, the mantra, win, win, win, hurt if you must to uphold the honor of our dear old school and cheat every chance you get. And then we wonder where all these "me firsters" who shove inoffensive kids out of the lines they are in, the ones who hassle the little ones. The peaceful ones who have to do one thing to survive without contusions and abrasions with their pants still held up around their waist - - - - they have to run faster and be more cunning in their escape route to make it home before the jocks catch them. I use "Jocks" generically as a substitute for all of the kids raised by bigoted, irresponsible, careless people. When a six year old picks up a stolen gun out in plain sight and has obviously picked up a slant on life learned from hearing the common talk in his environment - - - - who, way back when taught that kids parents to live an upright life ? And who taught their parents ? Why do we turn our heads so we don't get "involved ?" Some years ago how could it have happened that a young lady was repeatedly assualted and finally killed in the sight of people in the building many of whom had a ringside seat and watched most of it ? Just how could an occurance have happened in the northeast part of our country where a cheering ring of men stood around (what was it? a pool table ?) and watched a woman being repeatedly raped ? And where did the idea that she was just asking for it come from ? Have we all become crass, cruel and careless about letting these things happen without stepping in or calling for aid ? Who insisted that children be taught the basic elements of civilized living? Who insisted that along with sex education the kids should be taught a marriage course and child care course ? Apparently no one, or not enough to be a sufficient majority to get action. It keeps coming to me, time after time what I have heard is the shortest sentence in the Bible, "Jesus wept" I can surely see why he did. Amen

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