Reluctant Disgust

    Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid were nightly duties to attend to--a half an hour interlude from the chaos of a family of five.  You did not dare talk during Eric Sevareid's reflections on current affairs.  Listening to the news was as important to being a citizen as was voting.
     Much has changed in 40 years.  The Cold War has ended.  The Vietnam War is history.  The Apollo missions into outer space ended, and now NASA'S Space Shuttle program is coming to a close.  Eric Sevareid's voice has been silenced.  Walter Cronkite's "And that's the way it is," no longer is the way it is.
     Some call it hyperbole.  National security "experts" call it chatter.  Whatever the public venue, reflection, and thoughtful deliberation seem extinct.
     Where are the reasonable voices?  Issues abound.  Yet, the chatter--the political hyperbole--has drowned out the time for quiet meditation.
     Technology need not be the villain.  Moderation.  Selectivity.  Alternative news sources.  Proven integrity.  No enemies exist--no villains await infliction of violence--unless we certify them with our gullible trust.
      Debate about the federal and state budgets is woefully lacking in thoughtful, conversant discourse.  I am grateful that the health care debate has ended.  I fear the much-needed discussion of Medicare.  Both are too close to my past and future realities.
      I fear I am losing, if not already lost, a principled, spirited expression of citizenship.  I fear I have stopped listening.  I do turn off coverage of current affairs that disintegrate into a verbal free-for-all.
      Have my convictions narrowed?  My willingness to stand up for my beliefs disappeared?  I fear my beliefs have been stripped to one.  I am not a violent person.  Yet, during the health care debate, I wanted to throttle those who incited hyperbole, and fertilized a futile free-for-all.
      I want to send an open letters to all decision-makers--to all citizens, with a very simple message:
      We have no guarantee that we will wake up tomorrow with the same capacities--mental, or physical--that we have when we go to bed tonight.  Our decisions must be rooted in that appreciation.