I really don’t miss being a news reporter. I miss the weekly paycheck but other than that, I have to admit, I was ready to move on. News was getting depressing and the shock value that it takes to grab people’s attention was demanding more and more drama. And so I pick up the paper this week and we have an alleged dual suicide attempt gone wrong with a local couple. It’s now apparently a murder-suicide with the 82-year-old husband charged with murder and his 78-year-old wife deceased.
Also in the headllines of our local newspaper in a town of approximately 2,000 and a county of approximatley 21,000 – local 49-year-old woman arrested by FBI in alleged murder-for-hire plot; local man arrested for arson, plus a list of other not-s0-uplifting stories. Do I blame the paoer for highlighting the bad? Not at all. It is what it is and it seems to keep getting worse. I can remember bringing my daughter from Youngstown, Ohio to Romney because I wanted to get her away from such craziness. Now, it’s here. It’s been here and it’s not going to get any better.
So what’s the scoop? Why is it getting worse? From a Biblical standpoint, scripture is being fulfilled. Who would have believed that we would have dealt with an earthquake, right here in small town USA? The Bible talks about such things, including “earthquakes in diverse places,” and family turning against family, wars and rumors of wars, calling evil good and good evil and so on and so on. I’m not convinced that there is any place that is safe any more. Just because a person lives in a small, quaint little town doesn’t mean that he or she is exempt from the craziness that’s going on in our world.
It seems like more and more, murders, rapes, burglaries and such take place and when neighbors are interviewed, their comments are often the same thing, “I can’t believe things like this are happening right here in our neighborhood. We moved here because we wanted a safe place to live where these kinds of things don’t go on.”
Get used to it folks. As one man told me as recent as yesterday, “I don’t have to make up things to scare you, the truth is scary enough.” And so it is. The local drug market is at an all-time high with drug runs coming into our county from various areas like Baltimore, Md. and even Florida where drug clinics appear to be nothing more than legalized drug pushers and providers.
It’s no wonder that the Bible talks about “men’s hearts failing them for fear.” It’s no wonder many local residents go to bed at night with a loaded weapon within reach. Am I pushing for such a thing, or condoning such a thing? I don’t have to. It’s happening because many residents no longer feel safe.
So much for small town USA. I personally think that life in the USA is a far cry from how we used to know it. The sad part is that our kids will grow up thinking this is normal. The even sadder part is, unfortunately, they will be right.
Eh, I actually think the media is to blame. We have considerably more access to news – in many different forms – than ever before, and it tends to breed this culture of fear. Besides, what exactly are these greener pastures you’re dreaming of? Back when women had significantly fewer rights? When there was segregation and rampant racism? Further back, to World Wars where people were slaughtered by the millions? In Jesus’s time and for hundreds of years after, women were treated as property, slavery was common, and basic medical technologies were unable to cure what are today largely preventable diseases. Think about how different the world was before vaccines.
And actually most violent crime rates in the U.S. spiked in the 80s and early 90s (during the beloved Reagan and Bush years); they’re decreasing now to rates comparable to the 50s and 60s.
For anyone that’s not a white male, America is a far more enjoyable country to live in today than it was 50, 100, or 400 years ago. And I would argue that because basic rights are extended to a greater percentage of the population, it is far more enjoyable for everyone: more tolerance, access to education, equality, access to health care, etc.
Perhaps it’s better to thank God, or your fellow Americans, or all of humanity for those truly positive changes than enable more people to live fulfilling lives, rather than focus on the reality that there is crime in small-town America because there always has been and there always will be.
Wow, did you read the same blog I think I wrote. Nobody but you said anything at all about going back to segregation, days of slavery, racism or World War I or II. And if you think there aren’t wars going on today, you’ve been hiding your head in the sand. It’s apparent you haven’t lived when times were more simplified, when a person could walk outside his or her house at night without fear of being shot down by a stray bullet. It’s apparent you haven’t lived when you were ok with letting your kids walk down the street to the neighbors where he or she could play all day and just expected that he or she would come back safely at the end of the day.
Was there violence and crime then? By all means. But not the the caliber, nor the magnitude that there is today.
Let’s face it. We all watch violence and killing, rape and murder on television so often now that our nation has lost its sensitivity to death and its appreciation for life. Now, kids carry guns to school and if someone looks at them the wrong way, their life is in danger. Now, someone gets let go from a job, you have to wonder whether he or she is coming back with a shot gun or an assault rifle.
You talk about feminism and women’s rights, I’m there with you. A woman should have the right to go for a jog in the park without fear of being raped and murdered. A woman should have the right not to be exploited and sold on the streets as if they were a product of some kind.
As for small town rural America, I grew up here. I left here and have lived in the cities where the gangs moved in and people were afraid to go to a mall, even in broad daylight. I ended up moving back here some years ago to return to some of that simple life, but it’s no longer here. Everyone locks their doors here now just like we did in the city. Police are fighting the drugs here just like they were in the city. Nearly every home here has at least one gun for protection, just like they had in the cities. And, if you’re convinced that the crime rate has dropped today to the equivelant of the 50s and 60s, you’re watching some new broadcast that wants to paint a good picture and make you think things aren’t as bad as they were a few years ago.
I didn’t make this political, you’re the one who wants us to think that things were worse than the Bush and Reagan years.
Our nation wasn’t on the verge of a financial collapse in the 80s and 90s. We weren’t 15 Trillion or so dollars in debt in the 80s and 90s. We can banter back and forth all you want, but I’ve watched the changes in small town rural America over the last nearly 60 years, and I can tell you for a fact, it “sure ain’t” what it used to be.
Sorry for the confusion; of course I’m not accusing you of wanting to go back to any of those things. I’m just wondering when exactly the “best” time period to live was. I presumed if you were idealizing any time period before the 1960′s, I also need needed to point out all of the terrible things that still happened. And since the 1960′s, violence was at its peak in the 1980′s and early 90′s. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics: “In the last decade (since 2000) the homicide rate declined to levels last seen in the mid-1960s.”
I grew up in small-town America, and while there weren’t the same concerns for safety that people have today, I found the racism and sexism even more oppressive than the fear of crime that I have today.
As you worked in media and said yourself, the shock value that it was taking to grab people’s attention was requiring more drama. Now imagine that most media sources are operating under similar principles, and the fact that there are thousands more media sources, and the reality is that there is more news and it needs to be made more shocking than ever before.
There’s a great book by Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear, that mostly just has useful information about avoiding violence but he does talk about the media’s role in promoting violence as well as generally breeding a culture of fear. Here’s a good excerpt from an interview with him:
“When TV news coverage presents so much on these topics, it elevates the perception of terrorism and tragedy way beyond the reality. In every major city, TV news creates forty hours of original production every day, most of it composed and presented to get our attention with fear. Hence an incident on an airplane in which a man fails to do any damage is treated as if the make-shift bomb actually exploded. It didn’t. Imagine having a near miss in your car, avoiding what would have been a serious collision–and then talking about it every hour for months after the fact. Welcome to TV news. The world is not a more violent place than it has ever been, however we live as if it were. The U.S. is the most powerful nation in world history–and also the most afraid.”
Sorry for the confusion; of course I’m not accusing you of wanting to go back to any of those things. I’m just wondering when exactly the “best” time period to live was. I presumed if you were idealizing any time period before the 1960′s, I also needed to point out all of the terrible things that still happened. And since the 1960′s, violence was at its peak in the 1980′s and early 90′s. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics: “In the last decade (since 2000) the homicide rate declined to levels last seen in the mid-1960s.”
I grew up in small-town America, and while there weren’t the same concerns for safety that people have today, I found the racism and sexism even more oppressive than the fear of crime that I have today.
As you worked in media and said yourself, the shock value that it was taking to grab people’s attention was requiring more drama. Now imagine that most media sources are operating under similar principles, and the fact that there are thousands more media sources, and the reality is that there is more news and it needs to be made more shocking than ever before.
There’s a great book by Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear, that mostly just has useful information about avoiding violence but he does talk about the media’s role in promoting violence as well as generally breeding a culture of fear. Here’s a good excerpt from an interview with him:
“When TV news coverage presents so much on these topics, it elevates the perception of terrorism and tragedy way beyond the reality. In every major city, TV news creates forty hours of original production every day, most of it composed and presented to get our attention with fear. Hence an incident on an airplane in which a man fails to do any damage is treated as if the make-shift bomb actually exploded. It didn’t. Imagine having a near miss in your car, avoiding what would have been a serious collision–and then talking about it every hour for months after the fact. Welcome to TV news. The world is not a more violent place than it has ever been, however we live as if it were. The U.S. is the most powerful nation in world history–and also the most afraid.”
And, if I came across in haste, I apologize eminsely. And, you have brought us to an equal plain where I must agree with your latest comment. I think it’s sad that our nation lives on the “what might have happened,” or the “what could have happened if…” theory.
Hype is what keeps a news media going. Somewhere the truth seems to have wandered off course at times and the sensationalism has overtaken it.
I will say that I am pleased with the hometown newspaper I have worked for for 17 years. They have done everything possible to print the truth that can be backed up by the facts. Did we always get it right? No, not always. But most of the time and for that I feel good about my career in journalism.
Recently, when it printed so much bad news all in one week, it was because so much happened in one week. I find it sad to think that our kids and grandkids are growing up without hearing the bullfrogs croaking in the distance or the water running in the creek next to the old farmhouse I grew up in.
Instead, they grow up practicing Code Red drills at school and hearing news reports following dinner that tells of all the shootings, violence and yes, still today there is racism and segregation, as well as bias among men and women, rich and poor.
I’m a firm believer in a woman making the same pay for the same work a man does. Even the Bible says that “the laborer is worth (his or her) hire.
Again ashleylascko, I apologize for a somewhat harsh response. If you read my most recent blog, hopefully you’ll understand that the past week or so has been somewhat trying and I guess maybe my fuse was shorter than normal.
Thank you for your replay. It’s always nice hearing from you. And I promise, the next time you want to write a response, you won’t have to throw your hat in the ring first to see what kind of response you’ll get. God’s Blessings.
Pastor Don Kesner