If you are reading this blog, the world did not end!

Last night my son came down and requested a private talk with Mommy, not Daddy. Apparently, he remembered a talk earlier in the week about death and how we would all die someday and now this talk was keeping him up at night and causing him to cry. Wow.....talk of death at age 4! What brought on this talk and thoughts of death? (I mean, besides my earlier revelation to him) Was it his genius mind thinking things through? Was it something that happened during the day? Was it his Daddy's mission to kill all ants he sees? Or was is simply mass media's attempt to take something like the Digital TV switchover and create the feeling that the world could be ending! Actually, for those addicted to reality TV, yet no cable/satellite/or digital conversion magic box, their world has basically ended. I mean, seriously....without rich men picking from 25 celebrity and money hungry bimbos, thousands of Americans who think they can dance, sing, or chew gum and walk, or celebrities who starred in movies that rank between 300 and 500 on my all time list and are now stuck in a jungle that magically has 42 night-vision cameras, how will the world really go on? But all this brings me to my real point.....we live in a world of 24-hour media coverage through a 1000 different networks and avenues and all they can really do to get noticed is to make the simple thing seem like the end of the world, or at least a reason to visit your local grocery store and buy enough can foods and water to wait out the panic. Phew...glad I had my pork and beans and 4 gallons of water yesterday, it was chaos outside during "the conversion" (which even sounds a little religious/end of times too doesn't it?)

Over the past year, I thought about blogging several times about these "end of times" stories. 2 of our 3 local stations would sign off from the nightly news every night with a second-by-second countdown timer of when the digital TV switch would occur. Talk about chaos, when the deadline was extended by 4 months, those countdown timers had to be reset! But good thing it was extended as 40% of the American population was not ready. Seriously? Not ready? I know the economy is rough and all, but all you need is cable or satellite TV or a freaking toaster oven on your TV that magically switches your picture. DISH has a package for $9.99, you just don't get much (local plus C-Span plus Reality network I assume, the crap channels). And now word is that given a 4 month extension, 35% Americans still weren't ready! So....we were tested with the "end of the world" and 40% weren't ready. Then the TV Gods (and the government) threw us a bone and gave us 4 more months to prepare and only 5% more people took this seriously? I hope we do better when Rapture begins! I'm confused...let's look at another end of times event and see how we fared.

Ahh, the Swine Flu, er, pardon me: H1N1. Even though the Swine Flu was not really only caused by swine and couldn't be transmitted by eating pork, the name change didn't matter, the public was already pigphobic. Great job media, you should be a lawyer. Put something out there and then try to take it back and hope the jury "doesn't consider it". Egypt ordered all 300,000 living hogs in their country be slaughtered immediately? Huh? Well, at least now we have some people taking the end of the world seriously. But Egypt is battle-tested and been through this end of the world stuff before (see Bible for more details) But alas, the media loved this story and went with a different timeline than the World Health Organization (WHO). I know this because yesterday the flu finally was deemed pandemic and the most serious level it can reach. The media didn't cover this as they had already exhausted all the facts and rumors of this story and were on to more important stories (see California paegant news, Conan O'Brien's debut, and the rigged Iranian election). But you have to give it to the media, they had us buying canned foods, water, and masks again to avoid the disease that could "end the world". I wore my son's Darth Vadar mask to school for a solid week! God forbid we actually do some research and see that up to March 31st, the Swine flu had killed 1 American while the regular flu (Influenza A) had killed 13,000 Americans. Yes, that is 13,000 to 1. If that was a football score, you might be an Iowa State fan and might be very depressed. But Influenza A doesn't sell, swine does. Well, not pork, but swine does. And the world went into a panic, schools closed, businesses shuttered, and yes even my church stopped shaking hands at the sign of peace. However, they did keep drinking wine all from the same communal cup. Gotta love Catholics. Friendly handshakes?? No way dude, you could have the flu! Pass me the cup, I need my alcohol before 10 a.m., I mean I need the blood of Christ...I don't care if I am 243rd in line!

As a teacher, I got emails on how to protect myself and my students. I was instructed on how to sanitize tables, chairs, and doorknobs. I was to talk to my students about the importance of cleanliness. Schools and teachers were going to fight this disease using prevention and we will overcome! Hmmm....can you imagine if media would cover STDs to this level and schools were given permission to fight these? 1 in 3 teens has an STD (compared to 1 in 39 million American teens who have the Swine Flu) yet my students are touching doorknobs with rubber gloves in order to open it to leave the building and go have unprotected sex with someone they chatted with on Myspace. What is wrong with this picture? With mass media coverage and current technology, I have twitter and facebook updates telling me of the dangers of a disease that has killed 1,965 people worldwide....in the history of the world! And the students listen to every word and follow the media's instructions. But when it comes to AIDS, STDs, lung cancer, and simple diahrrea (one of the 3 leading causes of death worldwide), I can't convince anyone of the dangers of smoking, drugs by needles, or unprotected sex! These diseases have killed MORE THAN A BILLION WORLDWIDE throughout history! Huh? C'mon media, focus on the real problems! I won't even go into the government handing money left and right to countries and agencies to fight the Swine Flu, yet Bill Gates and Bono seem to be the only rich people that care about the spread of AIDS worldwide.

Anyway, my overall point is that our current 999 channel TVs and the Worldwide Internet plus bloggers like me, need stories to cover and overcover. Unfortunately, good stories don't sell and everything must be made to be the "greatest threat to mankind ever". So, at the age of 31, I have already lived through the Flood of the millenium, blizzard of the century, 1 world pandemic, 3 countries labeled the biggest threat our country has every seen in its history, the 10 best movies of all-time (according to IMDB), the 10 worst white girl abductions from rich American families of all time, and likely whatever story the media decides we all must focus on today. Someday, I will tell my kids that I survived AIDS, Influenza, cancer, the unchanging American public education system and all my grandkids will say is "What was the Swine Flu outbreak like?", "How many terrorists did you kill?", "Did your car ever get bombed?", or "Did you ever meet a big celebrity like Perez Hilton, Spencer Pratt, or Jon and Kate? (bonus points if you know all 3 of those. And with those bonus points you win nothing but another subscription to Us Weekly and National Enquirer).

So, I don't have any solutions except to keep tons of canned goods and water in preparation for the real end of times, watch the final 10 minutes of the national news (only time when positive stories are run), and research every news story to see if it really is a big deal, and by research, I don't mean cnn.com, abc.com, msnbc.com, and fox.com. I mean neutral sites who don't get paid to have you watch their show. Wikipedia is actually decent as universities have now realized; and google searches on the topic aren't bad either. The news stories are serious and deadly and do need covered, but remember that our ancestors did live through 2 World Wars, a REAL flu pandemic, something called the American Revolution, and thousands of years where the average human didn't live past 45. And you think we have it rough and are living through some of the most amazing and horrifying events of all time? Hmmmm.....


Love&Prayers,
Ben

3 Things to leave you with:
1. http://www.snopes.com/ Seriously, if you aren't using this site to verify the facts of some email or internet rumor, you need to. Before you forward an email that claims the Swine Flu is actually developed by terrorists out to hurt the pork industry or that you get $10 from Bill Gates for forwarding a virus, check this site out.

2. If you really don't have any TV to watch b/c the conversion caught you by surprise, get satellite TV for $20 a month. That is $240 a year and can likely be made up by driving the speed limit and not buying items near the cash register (magazines, candy, pop....all nearly 500% overpriced when you compare their online or bulk prices)

3. And if you are still reading, stop reading and read the book "The Energy Bus". http://www.theenergybus.com/ This book has had a big effect on my life and is great for any educator, business person, coach, or leader. I will blog about it in the future, but for now...read it!