No News is Good News

This is a great time for lovers of news. Some of us just can't get enough. I check the cable news early in the morning. I want to find out what has happened while I slept. I confess that I usually watch Fox News -- but I do watch others. At noon and in the evening, I watch CBS News, both local and National. I think my compulsion to watch the news dates to my youth. Twice I was caught completely unaware when "big" things were happening. The first was the start of the Korean War. I was only 13 years old, but it still bothered me that the first I saw of this war was in a movie News Reel. Why didn't I know that this was happening? When I was an older teenager -- in college, I was shocked to hear about the Marines landing in Lebanon. I had no idea what led up to this. Where was my head? I resolved inside never to be caught unaware again.

As much as I try, as much as I tune into news, I still seem to be surprised. There is always something that I don't know. I wonder if I really am upset because things are happening that I can't control! (I am really not going to explore that at this time.) The current financial crisis has caught me off guard. I have been following the news and know that things are bad. My finances are bad. My home was foreclosed. I do know that gasoline is expensive. I also know that so is everything else. But, it seemed like out of the blue, the Secretary of the Treasury and the President were asking for a bail-out to keep the whole economy from failing, banks started to declare bankruptcy, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be rescued etc. On and on it went. Why didn't someone tell me? How can you watch so much news and still be caught surprised?

I would be just as informed if I just took it easy, read the paper, checked the Internet and watched one news show in the evening. Being a news junky really just leaves me frustrated. When I grew up I learned the saying that No News is Good News. That isn't true in this day. Not having news doesn't mean anything good is happening. But I'm going to take it easy and not be so compulsive about the news. Take it easy Dick . . .

Oops, got to sign off, Bill O'Reilly is about to start! By all!