On opting out of the news

When my Mom describes the late 1960’s and early 70’s she doesn’t talk about freedom riders, Kent State, the heart breaking assassinations, the wars, the protest, the deaths, trials or tribulations. In short, the news didn’t make it into her bubble. “I kept that all out,” she told me one day. “I had three babies to take care of, and the news was a little too much. I just stopped being tuned in at all.”

While I used to have contempt for that position, and felt that a smart, progressive woman like my mother had a part to play in America, and the world, from 1966 through 1976 – I’m much more sympathetic to it now.

I don’t even have the trauma of a Robert Kennedy assassination to use as an excuse and still I feel that I’ve had my fill of news. The NSA nefariously collecting all our data? I’ve heard of it, but I’d have a hard time having a conversation about it. Drones? The ongoing malfeasance of Republican, and general uselessness of Democrats? The end of ice-caps in our lifetime? With every passing day those things seem to be fading into a white noise. Is that the rumble of trucks on the highway, or did a convoy in Afganistan just get bombed? I have no earthly idea.

This is an odd admision for a political blogger to make, and I’m a little ashamed of myself, but only a little. For me to be really ashamed, I’d have to be clued into the enormity of the events I am ignoring. I’m not.

Who knows though. Maybe it is simply the onset of summer. With yard work to do, my American amnesia may be setting in. Perhaps in the fall I’ll stir again. Stay tuned, or don’t. I’ll be out admiring my alstroemeria.