Marc YachtIt’s tough looking at a newspaper these days. In fact, any media news is hard on the digestion. Fox commentary focuses on how terrible President Obama is, CNN beats a story to death ad nauseam, MSNBC and HNL have their own array of talking heads, and don’t forget newspapers that relegate any good news to the obituary page.
Perhaps Chicken Little of “the sky is falling” fame is having his moment in the spotlight. Maybe he’s been right all along. I’ve been looking skyward of late and now wear my old Army helmet from Vietnam when walking outdoors. If the sky isn’t falling then maybe it’s stray bullets from the pro-gun people as they take backyard target practice.
The best news these days is that the South Carolina Senate agreed their Capitol would no longer fly the Confederate flag. Meanwhile, here in Florida, Marion County decided to raise one. People who never owned a flag are buying and flying it in protest. They come down, they go up. You’ve got to love this country.
Rumors circulate that the Ku Klux Klan and their ilk plan a demonstration to uphold the right to fly the Confederate battle flag. Those fine gentlemen already have the right to fly it on their trucks and private property. However, taking it down from public buildings must affront their tightly wound bigotry. Surely someone must stand up for an all-white Christian America!
There was a time when FBI agents swelled the KKK’s ranks as they spied on those Sons of America. Could that still be true? Imagine an FBI agent wearing a hooded robe. Do they wear a dark suit, tie, and aviator sunglasses under the vestments? Is it possible that more law enforcement money pours into the white supremacy conclaves than from legitimate bigots? A good question. Police are known to go the distance for a collar. It must be hard being an undercover cop and getting even tougher to be a racist. What has happened to America?
Then there’s the news out of Chicago. Gunmen killed nine people during the Fourth of July weekend. The victims included a 7-year-old boy. Some were gang members, some might have been gang members, and others were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Chicago is a great city, but it can’t seem to shake its violent past. Gangs run rampant and with so many guns on the street fatal shootings occur every day. Now when visiting Chicago, my helmet and flak jacket are de rigueur.
And, of course, one can’t escape the Greek financial collapse. The Greek economy has caved more times than boxer George Forman has retired. The country has just 11 million people yet owes billions. If every Greek citizen found a way to make a million dollars tomorrow, the country would still be in a hole.
The Euro countries are looking to cut their losses. Why throw more money into Greece? What happened to those Greek billionaires like Onassis? Can’t they help? There are a lot of theories about their monetary collapse, but if you look real close it may relate to the concentration of wealth among the very few. America should take heed. It could happen here. It may already be happening.
Not to be outdone by murder and financial disaster, 243 doctors and nurses from across the U.S. have been accused of fraudulent Medicare billing: front page news. Doctors, nurses and clinics bilked billions. How does it happen? What happened to Dr. Marcus Welby? Where is Dr. James Kildaire? Can’t Dr. Leonard McCoy beam down some relief?
So where is the good news? There must be some good news!
As the security lady at the airport told her supervisor while she frisked me: “I can’t find anything.”
I said, “Keep looking! Keep looking!”
So that’s what I’ll do: keep looking for good news. My kingdom for some good news!
Marc Yacht is a retired physician living in Hudson, Fla. This column courtesy of Context Florida.
