Lately in the news all you hear about is either the election or something depressing. In the past week a 10-year-old-boy was shot in Philadelphia, an innocent child caught in the crossfire on the way to school, all because people don’t know how to solve their problems without involving guns and violence.
According to an article that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week about this shooting, Bishop R.T. Jones gave a speech where he said, “The ‘real tragedy’ behind the bullet that struck Faheem in the head: a complex of problems, stemming from factors ranging from guns and joblessness to selfish parents and disrespectful children.” What he spoke about says to me that people in their neighborhood need to control their violent outbursts and to keep a clear head when it comes to arguments. A shooting is treated as a common occurrence, but when it happens to a child it outrages and upsets everyone whether they are involved or not.
The news today likes to focus more and more on the things that they know will strike a cord with the viewers. I am sure that I am not the only person who has noticed this, but in today’s society I believe that the instances of violence have become more frequent, after 9/11 specifically, people acted out upon those of Middle-Eastern descent. This event ignited the flame of “unity” within this country but it has also ignited the flame of animosity towards those who supposedly were involved with this attack. It gave each person who sported an American flag in their car or home after this incident a sense of pride, but also somewhat of a sense of dislike towards those who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent.
I believe that the producers of these news shows want to see what kinds of reactions they can get out of people. What kinds of emotions are we expected to feel when they show things such as, the man who was charged with the rape of an eight-year-old girl in a Philadelphia library? Feelings of anger surface for the loss of the little boy’s life who was shot last week, or just feelings of shock, like the man who was caught on tape by a car wash surveillance camera kidnapping an 11-year-old-girl.
It’s all of these and many more things that have made me stop watching the news as of late. It has just been far too depressing, and there is too much violence on the news, so I feel that the news should try and find some more positive stories to focus in on, rather than the average dark and gloomy things that I have seen in the past few months.
Posted to the Web by Shawn Rice
