BEGGING FOR A 1 DAY MORATORIUM ON POLITICAL NEWS 9/2

Dear NBC, ABC, CNN, FOX NEWS, WALL STREET JOURNAL, WASHINGTON POST, ETC. ETC., ETC.

I suggest we declare a one day moratorium on political news on September 2, commemorating the end of World War II in 1945.  

Think of how wonderful it would be.  You open your newspaper and read about important events going on in the world or your own city.  You check your computer or cellphone, and don’t see a picture of Stormy Daniels or Paul Ryan.  You turn on the evening news and once again, you can trust that you will not have to look at  Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin.  You will not hear one newscaster spending a full hour berating the president, or turn to another station to hear another newscaster defending the president.  Nada. Nothing. Verboten.  I don’t know what they will find to talk about, but surely they can think of something.

Isn’t there anything else of interest going on in the world but politics?  Wildfires and flooding are actual news.  Tragedies like school shootings and duck boat accidents are deserving of all the news reports they can get.  We know that negativity is the name of the game in the media racket today.   Sex, lies, murder, disgrace, downfalls of the rich and famous.  That’s what sells, so we can understand that sort of coverage is never going to end.   Honestly, I don’t care what you report or don’t report.  Just please, please, all media sources: get together  and announce that for one pleasant, beautiful day, we don’t have to read or hear about politics.

Let's try and extend the moratorium across the country, and encourage people to talk about anything but politics. You know what might happen on that particular day?  People might carry on conversations about last night's baseball game, or where they went on vacation.  The “socialist” on the left and the “nazi”  on the right might find out they actually kind of like each other.

What will the activists do that day?  I would suggest they pack up a picnic lunch, buy a bottle of wine, and go to the beach.

ACTIVISTS PROTEST WHILE FARMERS PRAY FOR RAIN

Although my husband and I live in the city, we have an acre of land, and are surrounded by farmland.  As we drove past thirsty cornfields on the way to the cemetery on  Memorial Day, we thought about the anxious farmers who planted those fields. You see, my husband grew up on a farm in Nebraska, and my grandfather owned a farm in Indiana. And even though I lived in big cities like Chicago and Miami for a couple of decades, I never forgot the importance of rain.

Over the weekend, I read a fascinating book written by activist Cecile Richards, and it occurred to me that perhaps it offered an explanation of the great divide between big city liberals and heartland conservatives.   In general, people in flyover country don’t really have the time to devote their lives to activism.  They’re too busy producing the food that appears miraculously in New York and LA supermarkets for the people who live in high rise apartment buildings, and never have to  worry about mowing their lawns.

I thought about this last night while I was cleaning up my garden.  It finally rained,  so I could stop watering the flowerbeds and grass, and get to work.  I broke a pretty good sweat while down on my knees, tugging on weeds in the good, moist soil while my activist sisters in big cities were busy planning protests and hoping it wouldn't rain.  Here in the heartland,   people don’t have their heads in the clouds, they’re literally more down to earth.

I am not saying that’s good or bad; and I'm not defending either side of the political spectrum,  but it may explain the difference in the mindset of  middle America vs the east and west coasts.  Of course, we have our share of liberals and activists, especially on college campuses everywhere in the United States.  But generally speaking, people in small cities and towns in the Midwest  are more focused on just making a living and getting by, and yes, praying for rain.