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October 2009 Commentary
Today's news … and the oldie but goldie rules
 by Richard G. Biever
Senior Editor
Warnings from federal health officials about the potential of the pandemic H1N1 flu this fall topped the morning news on an Indianapolis oldies radio station not long ago as I was driving into work.
Right after, the DJ interjected that this was all a bunch of hooey.
This pandemic flu had been no worse than the flu of any other year, he said, and everyone was blowing it out of proportion.
Everyone’s entitled to his or her opinion. But pooh-poohing the warnings no sooner than they’d been read seemed a disservice, especially when you put the regular seasonal flu into perspective (please see the October 2009 Featured Story.)
The off-the-cuff radio commentary seemed yet another example of authority being not just questioned, which respectfully needs to be done from time to time, but downright belittled, which is getting old in this increasingly cranky, uncivil society.
Everyone’s an expert on everything these days. Whether it’s a morning DJ, newspaper columnist, talk radio or cable TV commentator, Internet blogger. And if something is said that some one else doesn’t agree with, then that “something” must be a lie or a bunch of nonsense.
Extreme views have always been lurking out there on the fringes: the Holocaust deniers, the Bush-9/11 conspiracy “truthers,” the moon-landing mythers. But the threat of H1N1 a bunch of hooey from my favorite oldies station DJ?
Is there no longer discernable, objective Truth — with a capital T? Is everything up to personal subjective interpretation?
This past summer, the news was full of stories and flap about the flu, cap-and-trade and health care reform. Cap-and-trade and health care certainly have created widely disparaging opinions. Given the enormity of these issues, that's understandable. But now even the reality of a pandemic flu seems up to personal opinion and ridicule, too.
These are all incredibly complex issues.
When we may not be able to hear the big truth swirling amid all the reasoned opinions and the static fringe, it’s sometimes best to find the little things we believe to be true, and be true to them. It begins with personal responsibility.
When it comes to cap-and-trade, we all may never be able to agree if it’s how the nation should cut carbon emissions. But everyone can take personal responsibility for our own carbon footprint right now. We all know wasting resources is not good.
Electric co-ops can point out a range of things that waste energy and offer advice to improve efficiency. But it’s up to us individually to follow through. We can do a lot of little things that add up. And when we’re building a new home, we can design it from the ground up to save energy.
If we all stopped wasting so much, we could make a big dent in carbon without debate.
When it comes to health care, we may never know how to fix all the ills our nation’s system might have. But we can take personal responsibility for our own health. We can skip that glazed doughnut and snuff out that cigarette. If we exercised more, ate less and took better care of ourselves, perhaps many of the issues with health care wouldn’t need reformed.
And when it comes to the H1N1 flu, no one knows if it will be mild or spiral into a viral nightmare. But we all can properly sneeze or cough into our elbow, wash our hands more often and stay home if we’re sick. That would at least assure we’re doing our part to prevent whatever germs we have from spreading to others.
So many of our nation’s ills and much of the incivility that’s brewing in our society could be lessened if we’d all tune in and turn on to the oldies but goldies. But not the oldies on the radio stations. Everyone needs to lighten up a notch, and dial in to the oldie but goldie notions like maintaining personal responsibility and following the golden rule. These are two truths that nations and civilizations, if they want to survive, cannot deny.
Written By: eceditor
Date Posted: 9/30/2009
Number of Views: 221
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