While making a way-too-early breakfast this morning, a thought popped into my head which i decided to share with a friend. The only thing any of us have been talking about is gas prices and occassionally looting/rioting. The media has shaped our perspective, once again, so that everything is framed within the context of the economy. I hadn’t once thought to bring up the thousand people that died in a stampede in Baghdad. A thousand people! And that’s just one story we don’t tell.

A friend-of-a-friend is holed-up in his house in New Orleans clinging to his gun as what he sees as his only chance at survival. Shouldn’t we be engaging in some serious conversation about how the reactions of people in New Orleans is indicative of how we will act as a dominant culture in the upcoming days of impending ecological disaster and social destruction? After all, New Orleans isn’t an anomoly, its a sample. If our culture of individualism drives us into an immediate kill-or-be-killed mentality at the first sign of hard times, then i’m afraid we stand no chance at survival.

I don’t want to continue being a mouthpiece for the media and the interests they serve. I want to use this time to have real conversations, to pay attention to the news that only makes it on the ticker tape (or doesn’t make it at all). I’m tired of this faux compassion of fear-mongering reporters who obviously care less about actually helping people than talking about how devastated the people are.

My correction to last night’s post: the economy isn’t important. relationships are.