BLOGGING

I've been trying my best to encourage Eric to set up his own blog. I've had no luck so far. It's a shame because he is such a wonderfully talented writer.

It would also give him a place to vent his anger at the news media. As all of you know by now, I value the fourth estate above all else in this country and believe strongly that if we did not have a free press that our form of government would be in very serious trouble (if it continued as we know it at all).

Eric knows that when I left for college at 18, I went to Indiana University on a full journalism honors scholarship. While I took another road later in life, my heart and soul have always been with investigative journalism. I think his long held rage at the news media interferes with any ability he may have to recognize how disrespectful he is of my most deeply held beliefs.

I don't know if this anger he has at journalism has been with him throughout his entire life or if it started during Viet Nam. I know he's very angry about what he believes was the news coverage during the Viet Nam war. He was in Viet Nam and I was here watching the news with even more interest than I have today. I can assure you the media was NOT disrespectful to the men and women who fought and died in that war. They did report accurately on the mishandling of the war by our leaders, but reporting accurately on the misdeeds of politicians is not the same as disrespecting the men and women who fought and died in that war.

Right now, even if they are covering the weather in the southestern United States, he's angry because they aren't covering the local weather. He seems to forget that when we are having severe weather locally that it is covered.

He gets angry every time something comes on about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He considers it "publicity" for the democrats and always manages to miss the extended coverage of John McCain's speeches and campaign stops. I suspect that Obama and Clinton would love for the media to just stop covering them quite as closely and as in depth as they have been. The kind and intensity of coverage they have been getting no one in their right mind wants.

What Eric fails to understand is that our citizens (right now) are very taken with (possibly lost in) anything that has to do with celebrity. It's the reason we are so inundated with information about the Spears woman and Angelina and Brad.

Right now, this issue of an African American man and a female at odds with each other is what people are interested in watching. It's our peoples way of feeling "involved" right now. This fascination with Spears and Brad and Angelina is a way for our people to feel involved with famous rich people who live lives the rest of us could never even imagine. It speaks to the need for our people to "get a life" of their own. None of this helps the Democrats. All of this coverage of this unfortunate situation certainly helps the Republicans.

Anyway, I have been hoping he'd start a blog and spew some of his venom through the blog. For now, I've more or less taken up residence in my office where I can watch the news if and when I want to. I'm one of those incredibly blessed people who can simply tune out nonsense and chatter on the news and pick up the important tidbits that I want or need to retain. The election will eventually be over and then maybe it will be safe to venture into the main part of the house again.