Bygone Era

I couldn't be more pleased to see the honor on the Emmy's for Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, and Peter Jennings. Honoring them was not just honoring 3 men, it was honoring what journalism used to be, and what it may never be again.

I was so moved seeing a documentary on Peter Jennings, and seeing how he had studied in and about the Middle East, so when he told you about the news, you trusted that what he was reporting was the closest thing to truth as he could find (very difficult since there are 3 sides to every story, person #1's side, person #2's side, and of course, the truth.)

Today we have a 24 hour news station dedicated to right-wing news. Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with having "all conservative, all the time" but instead they call THEMSELVES "truth" and anyone who reports on something critical of the administration "slanted," its a pretty nifty little trick, if you don't have the data to back up your policy choices, than put your energy into discrediting those that have data and good arguements to back up their points.

And why do the people in power on the right do this? Because they are evil? Well yes, the dirty tricks are quite evil, but they arent evil for evil's sake, they do it for money. They want the power to belong to the private sector because the more power they have the less is in their way to making money. It's so easy to understand if you are willing to look at it, but many people are not, they are not well educated (do you think America's education system is underfunded ONLY because it's cheaper?) I also recognize that people without power who support the right are human, and prefer to subscribe to the easier worldview than the one that forces them to accept that they (we) contribute to the problems of the world. I dont like knowing that my shirt was made by a person, possibly a child, who cant make ends meet in a third world country with the wages they earned, yet I paid enough for them to make a living, but that money went to a rich white men in the U.S.

Okay, this officially rates as being a rant, and I don't apologize. The movie yesterday validated and created a framework for what I already knew, and getting angry is a good thing! This anger I feel has repelled me from purchasing milk with rBGH (well the anger, and knowing that the cows on the hormone regularly get infections in their udders so milk from cows with rBGH regularly has PUS in it! BLECH!) This anger compels me to continue and expand on what I purchase from thrift stores. I am opposed to the practice of pulling resources from the earth, cheaply manufacturing them, and then disposing of them a year later. The less I buy new the less has been pulled from the earth, and the less is tossed in a landfill. It's a pretty self-serving "gift" to the earth and society, I get lots of nice stuff and it's REALLY INEXPENSIVE! (if owning large quantities of cheap stuff is not American, then I don't know what is) I don't apologize for getting mad, I apologize for all of the times I have held my tounge.

I also don't apologize for my rant because I want people to know they are not alone. I remember so vividly the days after 9/11, no one dared to say anything against the president and I felt ready to burst at the seams. Half of us think like me, and a great majority of the other half are good people who have been manipulated, so there is nothing to fear, we have power in numbers. RAH RAH SIS BOOM BAH!

mood: more relaxed than I have been all week