Short Rest Before Continuing The Journey
By Charles E. Kraus
I've spent four years feeling, thinking, assuming, presuming, and anticipating the news of the day. Not just taking it in, but reacting to events so outrageous and preposterous that I've found it impossible to discuss them without shouting.
I know there is a lot going on in the world. And I am as frightened by some of it as I'm sure you are. But I find that I'm more hopeful than I've been in quite a while. So hopeful, in fact, that I've taken a vacation from newscasts and the endless eyeballing of 'breaking news' hysterics.
Currently, I stay abreast of essential issues by reading or listening to a story here and there reported by responsible news sources. I am finally able to absorb such information because I don't get sidetracked from emotional button pushing. I am able to think rather than react. Yet, to tell you the truth, even this level of civic participation feels a little forced. Generally, if I tune in to an occasional broadcast of All Things Considered, my need to know is satiated. For now, I can let the world operate without my oversight.
At some point, years ago, instead of watching everything go wrong, I was simply on watch in a war zone. In certain ways it felt less dangerous. Anyhow, after being on guard for a predetermined period of time, my relief would show up. The military formality had me requesting to be relieved followed by the new guy staying I could go. Biden and I must have conducted such a dialogue. He's on watch. I'm back home.
My relaxed attitude has been brought about by a new found confidence. Days no longer seem filled with brinkmanship and irrationality. When I do scan the papers for an update, I am informed about progress, planning, strategy, intent. The rhetoric is civilized. I get the feeling intelligent people are making sincere efforts. There seems to be a kind of positive flexibility at work in Washington. Imperfect but determined. Responsible government doing its best.
Partisans want us to believe the country is about to come apart. They are trying to finesse mass unrest. Extremists point to their numbers, to their mobs, but these forces are self-limiting. As rational, reasonable people move forward with decency and perseverance, the partisans are going to learn there is a big difference between holding a one-day, failed, insurrection, and toppling an increasingly popular form of government.
A very long time ago, I had a journalism teacher who defined news as the items that made it into the newspaper. Minorities weren't news. The environment was news. Poverty wasn't news. None of these -- until they were. Right now, news means political instability, a deadly pandemic and economic uncertainty. And tomorrow? What will I be reading when I re-engage with the press?
Tomorrow the stories that get into the paper will be concerned with community, prosperity, dignity, empathy, optimism, facts, and a highly visible sea of unmasked smiling faces.
