“Technology teaches passivity. Absorbed in our devices – at any age – we are absorbed in someone else’s perspective.”   Julia Cameron

Hiding our heads in the sand when the world is out of control is not the answer. I’ve been trying to avoid any semblance of “news” for the past few weeks, but its unavoidable.

Last week a congressman was the target of an assassin’s wrath and continues to fight for his life, while a newsman claims that this might have been caused by the victim himself.  The claim was astounding to me and obviously many others, yet the news anchor was able to  spew this out to an audience just waiting for something else to pin on the Republican party.

In a time of such tragedy, we owe it to ourselves to rid the air waves of this kind of misrepresentation.  I’ve been trying to bury my head in the sand, but this back and forth bantering is everywhere.  It sickens me to think that our children are learning how to deal with problems in such a negative way.  They are being taught to enrage, attack and demean others.  It’s no wonder there’s an epidemic of bullying in our nation.

After several days of trying to avoid, I was bombarded with negative news on Monday.  A Syrian warplane was shot down by the United States – but little information about why. A local police officer acquitted of all charges in the shooting of a black man – demonstrations followed.  A black man acquitted of all charges in a case which occurred several years ago and not reported until recently.  Children are being murdered because they refuse to become sex slaves.  A continual smearing of our current administration goes on.  Crime in the streets is rampant.  Children are being left to fend for themselves in this crummy environment for the summer.

Whatever happened to the Walter Cronkites of old? The journalists who asked important questions – like who, what, where, when and why?  Who got every piece of information they could muster before even airing a story.  We have become a nation of enquiring minds that want to know right now!

We can’t sit by and do nothing about this.  I don’t have the answers, but it seems to me that we should unsubscribe to the news organizations – boycott their sponsors – refuse to put up with false news and news that incites.  However, we are so much a party to it.  We are feeding on this stuff.  Our people have devoured every negative piece of news they can get their hands on. They then spit it out in the form of rhetoric and hatred and we have become a nation divided.

Do we remain complacent and let others fight over this junk?  Do we stand up for the truth?  We owe it to ourselves to research every piece of news that comes to us.  If we don’t, we’re looking at a short future for our country.

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;  for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” 

James 1:19-20