ADMISSIONS

For most of my adult life, the news has been as much a part of my every day as eating and drinking. Essential. I would place only reading behind the news as vital parts of my daily regimen. Up until the past few years the pronouncement, ” . . . it’s true, I read it in the paper . . .” held validity. (As did “I saw on Walter Cronkite.)” Not so anymore.

News has become commentary with a kernel of reality — reality being what the network considers to be true. Mostly it’s not even subtle commentary. And if it’s the truth, and it’s positive at the same time, it somehow becomes unnewsworthy. If you watch CSNBC and I watch Fox News we might as well live on different planets. OK, I watch Fox and, on rare occasions, one of the three major networks. All as liberal as CNN. And, I listen to Rush when I’m free between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. But I can change my mind on issues. For years I didn’t buy into the climate change debate. Now I do.

Despite my admissions, I consider myself to be a solid American citizen and still get goose-bumps when I hear the National Anthem, and tears with a good rendition of God Bless America. Yes, I’m generally conservative on moral issues like abortion, and I believe in a strict interpretation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I’m liberal on all of our basic civil rights — including peaceful demonstration. Race, religion, gender don’t matter a bit to me. I’m Catholic but accept, and respect, your beliefs or lack of. We’re all different in a thousand ways.

I abhor violence and those who engage in it. The media loves it. And skillfully put their own spin on it.

They love a scandal, too. The belief that Trump won because of Russian intervention was just the beginning of the attempt to strip him of his allegedly illegitimate presidency. Then it was impeachment. When that failed we had the pandemic — a tragedy that wouldn’t have happened if Trump has acted quickly and decisively. When COVID was becoming a bore, George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis cop (while 3 other cops stood by). Floyd’s death had ramifications around the world leaving death and destruction in its wake. The cops involved should, and will, be put in prison for a long time. Sadly, that, however, will never change the havoc they caused. Add to all that, once again the police are the target of anti-establishment forces across the country. I can’t imagine NYC with the demands for fewer police and a slashed budgets. How can ‘reform’ become abolition? I won’t even go into the recent purging of our historical monuments or Mayor Deblassio joining the artists painting ‘Black Lives Matter’ in huge letters at the front of the Trump Tower where the first family lives.

I’ve vented. In sharing my perspective I did not intend to sermonize nor to make myself out to be a better person than anybody who reads this editorial. I am so far from perfection that I pray for a forgiving God every day. I’m 78 and a grampa to six wonderful grandkids. I worry about the world we are bequeathing to them. The debts are one problem but it is diminished by the possibility of their having to learn Chinese.