Last night when I started this I didn't think anyone would really read what I wrote. Most people ignore me when I start going on and on about things. Only my students listen to me because, one they have to and two, I talk their ears off. I like to hear the sound of my own voice at times, what can I say? I know it is a terrible habit but I don't always know what I am saying. When I get nervous, I talk. When I get angry, I talk. When I get sad, you guessed it, I talk. This is why I turned to the writing aspect of trying to get my thoughts and ideas out as I wanted to actually think things through and more importantly I did not see many talk show opportunities out there via the web. Imagine my surprise when I heard from so many of you today. I guess you all have turned up the pressure on me to show my witty side and keep the useless stuff coming. Maybe just maybe some of this information might have some validity to our everyday lives after all.
When I looked at my first post this morning I got a sense of purpose this am. It is almost the same feeling I get from grabbing the morning paper, getting my morning coffee and starting my exercise for the day on the Cybex Bicycle. I love being informed in the morning. I read the Boston Herald and the Wall Street Journal while listening to Sports radio WEEI. I am a sports nut after all.
I absorb the information I read or listen to like a sponge. I have loved the news since I was in grade school. Someone once told me that if you read Time Magazine every week that you will be in the top ninety percentile of informed people in the United States. A magazine a week that is all it takes. I may not be the brightest person walking the face of the earth, in fact I might be the lowest person on the PhD ranking poll, but by staying informed by simply trying to follow what the world is telling us helps to at least put me in the second tier in that ranking list. See Mom and Dad, I am putting that brain to work.
Just to give you an example on how uninformed I believe we are it has always blown me away that people in this country do not know who the Secretary of Defense is in the United States, btw it is Robert Gates. Besides the President this is a man who sends our loved ones, our friends, our neighbors into battle every day. Don't we as a citizen owe it to these folks to really look into this man? By all accounts from what I seen and read Secretary Gates is an honorable man who wears his heart on his sleeve. He is also a republican who served on the Bush cabinet so that is saying something right there. No matter what your personal politic views are we as a citizen of this great nation should know who this man is and what he is about?
Have you have ever seen Jay Walking with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show? Obviously the producers of the show spend hours in the editing room after filming people all day as Leno goes up to individuals and asks questions such as who is the Secretary of Defense. Have you ever listened to some of the answers? Granted I laugh like the next person however, it is a bit ridiculous how the average American really does not have a clue. Look at some of these individuals. Average Joe the Plumber Americans or Suzy Hairdresser types who cannot tell Jay who shot President Kennedy if they even know who President Kennedy was.
Do I have a sense of pride on being informed? Sure I do. It certainly helps when I watch Jeopardy, or play Trivia Pursuit, and it even helps at those infamous water cooler debates. Maybe putting down that Danielle Steele novel every once in a while and reading that Wall Street Journal or that Time Magazine will give you a different perspective of what is going on in the world. Watching that thirty second sound bite on Television or just looking at the advertisements in Star Magazine is not what I am talking about here. I am not lecturing or standing on the pulpit but is it not our responsibility to at least keep in check our elected leaders? We complain as a nation when things do not go our way but, do we have that right to complain when we do not even have the factual basis to? Whether it is spiraling unemployment, bank failures, ponzi schemes, healthcare legislation or government bailouts, it really does not matter. We owe it to ourselves, our children, our grandchildren to make sure that we can ask our elected leaders or people who work for the government to give us an honest explanation to what is going on here. Too many times we just accept what these people say.
We need to stop taking what these people say for granted and start trying to understand what the issues really are before we become a nation that just complains without any real background information before we complain. Complaining just to complain is becoming our national pastime. I even sound like I am complaining right now.
Tomorrow morning when I grab that coffee and head on that Cybex Bicycle, I will remember to look deeply into that new health care legislation so when I do complain about the skyrocketing costs of healthcare at least I will know what I am complaining about. Maybe all this information that I have been collecting over the years is not that useless after all.
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Footnote:
I found out today that a neighbor and childhood friend has passed away far too early. Joseph “Jay” Santana you will be sorely missed by all who knew you
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