Top News

COVID spread and vaccines. Football. Police Killings. Political infighting. Economic stats. Entertainment. More football.

That is pretty much it. Repeatedly. Inch by inch these issues dominate news outlets. Old news is not news, but the professional news vendors do not seem to mind. As long as viewers tune in, listeners listen and papers are sold, TV programs are produced, the vendors keep doing what they have been doing. Public consumption drives this.

I do not know why the public thirsts for these stale tidbits. Seems like a waste of time and energy for all involved. Why not focus on what really matters? Does that ‘sell’ or doesn’t it?

I am interested in what people are inventing. I focus on how organizations pivot from one opportunity to the next without breaking a sweat. I think about emerging issues, the ones that will become the news soon.

Oh sure, sudden happenings are news, too, like heavy weather, natural disasters, fires and explosions, and odd traffic accidents. Those events remind us of happenstance living. We do not control everything. Not even close. Hence, the unexpected interests us for at least a few moments.

Natural disasters cause human suffering. Rather than being ghoulish, the story becomes one of good Samaritans helping one another cope with the disaster and building toward a positive future. That is news. The good kind – from disaster comes promise of good.

I am fascinated with how we will handle educating first our children, then our adults to cope with major change. How will the learning process be managed, indeed, championed, to advance students’ mastery of material they need to prosper in life?

Another fascination: what does 'prosper in life' mean? Is it money? Fancy homes or cars? Exotic travel and fashionable clothing? Or does prosper have more meaning in cerebral matters? In what cultural activities are a large portion of society engaged? Might these include literature, visual arts, music, dance or other expressions of the inner person? Might they include solving weighty problems long suffered by humanity such as poverty, scarce drinking water, hunger, sanitation standards and a host of other woes? How agile is the human brain proving to be in dealing with these matters effectively?

What values do we espouse, indeed support? Do we care about others? Do we love others like we do ourselves? Do we share good fortune with others? Do we focus on community building? What of world peace and the well-being of the global village? Do we care of these things?

Or are we rooted in what matters to ourselves? Greed and selfishness do not improve our image. Neither does a focus on power. The question inevitably comes down to why does it matter? If the answer is a focus on self rather than others, then we see ourselves clearly in bad light.

Of course, feeding self-interest is one motivation to improve the living standards of others. We test what works for ourselves and then spread it to others. Doing such often improves commerce, profits, and other collateral matters. It is not all selfish. Benefits do accrue to a larger public.

Top news stories should not be about blood and guts, or lost jobs, disasters, or other low points in community life. Top news ought to be about our ability to survive and adapt to change and potential. That is the constantly unfolding story that needs telling.

Why don’t we hear more of this? Perhaps we haven’t let ourselves be known to the news industry? Perhaps we send mixed messages by consuming trash news?

So easy to fix. Know the matter. Change behavior.

Let’s try.

January 5, 2021