I don't watch TV news anymore; not even The Daily Show. I catch blurbs on the radio by accident sometimes. I only read my local newspaper. Why the news diet?
One: I get upset about things over which I have no control. That starts affecting my mood and attitude about things over which I do have control, and that's no good. No good at all.
Two: I can't figure out what's the truth and what's a lie.
Three: Same shit, different day.
It's not that I no longer give a fuck, despite what my lovely poster here says; it's just that I have to pick my battles, and usually those battles come to me. (Like the Downers Grove Park District. Don't think I've forgotten about you, Downers Grove Park District, because I haven't. You will pay for your iniquities.)
It's not that I don't care about those other battles, it's just that I know they're not my job to handle. For instance, there was a (thankfully small, yet obvious due to their mouthiness and minority status) contingent of gun-toting bigots at my uncle's wake last night. They began spouting some racist bullshit about minority workers. As my hackles began to rise and I picked up a kolachky to smash into his stupid face, Mr. Double Post spoke calmly and authoritatively, "That hasn't been my experience."
And since Mr. Double Post is a foreman who has run numerous construction jobs filled with countless people from just about every nation, he had the real-life, concrete evidence with which to thwart their poisonous rhetoric. And he told them politely and firmly that they were full of shit, without vitriol and without wasting a perfectly good kolachky (it was apricot.) And, they couldn't respond. They sat there a bit like puppies hit on the nose with a newspaper.
So you see, it was Mr. Double Post's job to confront the racism yesterday, not mine. Everything is not my job. Just taking down the Park District Board and keeping my household running smoothly. Which it is, thank you very much.
And that leaves me plenty of time to enjoy my pursuits, like collecting Eastern European chewing gum commercials:
