There’s more to life than fear

CHASING DOWN THE MUSE

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

-- FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

I’ve stopped watching and listening to the news. It shocked me to

realize that it’s been months since I sat before the TV screen to

watch Dan Rather and his cohorts. Me, an information junkie, and I

had turned off.

When and why did this happen? It happened sometime, as I recall,

after Sept. 11, when our national sense of security was irreparably

altered and the telecast replay mode got stuck on forever. The result

of the continued review of horrors is a kind of psychic numbing. The

more I see of that which is intolerable, the less I am able to feel.

My sense of outrage remains, but it becomes an intellectual exercise.

What I want is to know more. More than what the mega-corporate

news machines spew forth in a real time cacophony of events. More

about the why -- reached through deductive reasoning -- and less

about the minute- by-minute details and their accompanying sound

bites.

If I were to believe only what is broadcast, I’d have to conclude

that the world is a pretty awful place to be. And I just don’t find

that to be true.

On any given day, in most of the world, folks go about their

lives, just like you and me. They get up, have some coffee, drop

their kids at school, go to work and set about a daily routine. In

the evening, they reverse the outgo and come home to the family --

whatever structure that assumes. Teens work out angst and hang with

friends. Kids tear up the house and drag wagons down the street. In

most of the world.

That isn’t to say that there isn’t terrible and abundant grief.

There is. There are sick people within our global population that

feel empowered to subjugate, terrorize and murder other human beings.

If my history studies are intact, there has always been a faction

which I can refer to as evil, and there may well always be. But the

shock-value snippets from broadcast news reduce the world of

information to a feeding frenzy of fear -- just the kind of fear that

Roosevelt was suggesting.

What happened to educated personal analysis? What happened to

reading, digesting and discussing the news? What happened to

dialogue? And I don’t mean the interviews of Larry King, or the

shouting matches on “Cross Fire.” Although, I’ll admit, they provoke

a great deal more pondering than the 6 o’clock news. But again, it’s

passive information. One garnered by watching or listening to a

machine programmed by large corporations.

I don’t mean to sound Orwellian, but just who does decide what and

when is the right information? And when did the news start having

stars? Hair coiffed, makeup perfect -- in the face of firestorms and

bombings.

Thank God for the newspapers -- all of them. And for the magazines

-- what’s left of them (even if they are mostly owned by the same

folks that owned the broadcast stations) and for the growth of

research options via the Internet. At least, utilizing the skill of

reading, there is an opportunity to delve beyond the headlines and

experience a point of view that may be as personal or as objective as

the author chooses.

As I write this, four fighter planes have flown overhead. I hate

the fact that I am immediately filled with a fear that something

awful has happened and planes are leaving Camp Pendleton. I could

rush to the TV -- but I won’t -- at least until my beloved Angels are

to start game number seven. But wait -- those jets. Those ARE the

ANGELS jets. It is the beginning of the last game of the World

Series. I can turn on the set and have a real-time experience that is

pleasurable.

The point? The media keeps winning. We are living more and more in

fear, because every day the cameras focus on something more grievous

than the day before. As an antidote, I prescribe a walk in the

wilderness park, sunset in front of seal rock, a local high school

athletic event and/or a huge family hug combined with some personal

investigation into the underpinnings of the world. Let’s make of our

lives some good news.

* CATHARINE COOPER is a local writer/photographer who thrives on

off-beaten trails. She can be reached at 497 5081 or e-mail:

ccooper@cooperdesign.net.