When I was growing up, the only access to news was newsreels before the movies - and the weekly local newspaper that detailed such important events such who poured at which gathering of women. My grandfather would sit at our radio console, more in amazement at being able to hear distant stations than any interest in events occurring beyond our small town. The big war was over and we all were busy trying to forget there was a larger world than where we lived. We wanted life to be predictable and dependable. Such blissful ignorance!
Now technology provides us with a kaleidoscope of images. We wait for the next installment from Libya to learn if its oppressive dictator has been found. Three major earthquakes shake the ground in the Americaswithin a few days . My beloved "castle" of the Smithsonian, the National Cathedral, and the Washington Monument sustained damages and the images play out in front of me. Now we watch as an unpredictable hurricane named Irene makes its way up the Eastern coast.
I expect there are people who continue to live in the kind of cacoon that I did when I was growing up. Some people are simply too poor to care about anything but their daily survival. Others find the news of the day simply too deafening and deliberately shield themselves from the constant flow of information. Still others reach "compassion fatigue" and turn their attention to manageable details of their personal lives.
Questions about the reliability of what we call news complicates our understanding of what actually is important or even truthful. Some of the distortions and outright lies come from people who have power and want to keep it. Syria's "official news" is that its protesters are a rabble with guns who therefore need to be gunned down and controlled.
Others are well-meaning leaders who think they have the truth, when all they have is the proverbial tail in the fable of blind men touching an elephant. Wiki leaks is one effort to expose what otherwise would remain hidden (whether you believe they serve a legitimate purpose or who are a gang of illegal hackers). This morning I read that they have released information saying that McCain in 2009 argued that we should supply arms to Qaddafi. How differently events would be playing themselves out today under a President McCain!
The unpredictability of this monster hurricane - and the accompanying barrage of news information - actually does a disservice to ordinary people trying to make decisions about their own safety. Scenarios range from 20 feet of water at JFK to a path straight through the heart of Manhattan. I ask myself what I would do if we were still living in NYC's "New Jersey suburbs. Would I be buying emergency supplies and be planning to ride it out? Or would I fill the car to the brim with what I deem most precious and head westward?
I chuckled at the comment on CNN online that you can always tell a New Yorker - but you can't tell them much. An apt description that a New Yorker might wear with pride. But if a couple of weeks ago, someone said Washington DC would experience an earthquake, would you have believed it?
Meanwhile, stay tuned and stay connected. Who knows what unimaginable surprise is in the wings for next week.
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