Big Bike Crash!

Okay, so the top story headlining the news in my town right now is the motorcycle crash of a certain Super Bowl champion quarterback. You know the news will be "standing by live," proclaiming to have been "first on the scene," and of course, committed to bring us the latest. Hundreds, no - thousands of people will be glued to their TVs, radios and internet news sites today waiting to hear an update.

 

That's fine. I hope the guy is okay - really, I do. I'm not even going to get into the fact that he probably should have been wearing a helmet. Nope. All I want to say is there will be many people hurt today in accidents around our city. Someone's house will burn down. Someone's child will be hit by an errant driver. A teenager in the prime of his life may be shot in a drive-by shooting. So what right do we have to focus on one person only? Who will be standing by at the home of the mother whose child will not come home tonight? Tomorrow who will be thinking about the family whose lost everything when their house burned down? What does it say about our society that we let someone in a little box in front of a little camera tell us who rates?

 

This is my rant for the year. I'm not usually one to get on a soapbox about these things, especially because I usually don't feel I have an actionable solution. This time, I think I do. It's what I usually try to do when a news story is hyped for hours on end. It's simple: I don't watch it. Imagine if people all over decided to do the same. Get the facts and move on. At some point, the message would come through loud and clear. We don't need to "produce" tragedies. Yes, people need to be informed. No, we don't need negative and gory details piped into our minds like caffeine in an I.V. We don't need speculation and would-be lawyers tossing out their take on the issue. (News talk shows - whoever came up with that concept? Don't get me started!) Just the facts. That's all we need. What happened and how can people help?

 

Oops, time for the news! (Just kidding!)