Thursday, January 20, 2005
Mao is bitter and angry about cranksters
It is no secret that the “local” news is often the worst place to go for objective information. They are in the business of human interest. The pride themselves in the art of raising eyebrows and keeping interest to help people make it through commercial breaks. This is why all the commercials teasing the news, or the bumpers just before commercials, usually prey on your fear and/or curiosity. If you ever watch the news critically, I think that you will find yourself smiling, maybe even angry at how manipulative it all is.
A story here lately that received a lot of attention was the death of two college kids, who became lost during the last snow storm. They wandered away from their truck, and were found (eventually) dead from hypothermia. The news pulled every stop out to tug at the public’s heartstrings. While I hate to poke fun at anyone’s tragedy, I do want to point out that this story was not worth the coverage it received.
There were a lot of unanswered questions immediately, which made for a sexy story. Why were they in the middle of nowhere on a night that saw one of the worst winter storms we have had for a long time? Why did they get out of their truck? Why didn’t they have coats? When they found a shack/barn to hole-up in, why didn’t they stay there? Why did they make several calls to 911, but never take their advice and stay put? And ultimately, where were they (it took almost a week to recover both bodies)? Why did they find the boy first (why weren’t they together)?
The news was all over this one. There was a huge out-lash against the state of Nebraska because the 911 technology we have does not allow for immediate pin-point location ability from cell calls. There were those who blamed the state for the deaths. Then there was the big “pat ourselves on the back” story of all of the volunteers who mobilized to try to recover the bodies (at first it was a rescue mission, but became a recovery mission rather quickly). Fear came into play as the TV stations started calling in all sorts of experts to explain every last item you should have in your car to survive in such a situation; scaring the public into buying survival blankets, shovels for the car, and car candles. Lastly, the news really played up the “local-tragedy” aspect of the story… which incited candlelight vigils and prayer services.
Then, on the evening they finally found the girl, the truth (that many of us suspected) began to leak out. The couple had been stopped by police the night before under suspicion of driving under the influence. The phone calls to 911 were not entirely lucid and sober. The boy had chemicals not unlike cocaine and meth in his system. There were chemicals in the girl’s system as well. Oh, and a little fact that EVERY news broadcast forgot to mention even though it was known from the start, there was a bag of crank in the truck.
Here are two kids, high on drugs, who unfortunately were out in the middle of a rural county (presumably looking for a dealer) on an incredibly unsafe night. They avoided help from authorities via 911 because their judgments were skewed and they were afraid to be “caught” while stoned.
In my skeptical and callous opinion, the news wasted our time with this story by milking it for everything it was worth. In the end, it was an open and shut case. Two drug abusers, wandering in the cold, with no realistic sense of judgment, who ultimately froze to death. If they want to do groundbreaking journalism (which they don’t or they would have released all the facts at first and not covered up the drugs in the truck), they should do a piece of the proliferation of crank and meth in the area.
The news is always quick to point out when someone is busted cooking up meth. They always show these disheveled, toothless, scraggly people who look the part. But what they aren’t reporting is that the customers for this crap are not just the guy who changed your tires at Wal-Mart. For instance, this girl was a member of a Creighton University sorority. The news played her off as the sort of involved, educated, pretty, and motivated person you would expect to be found in an expensive Jesuit university’s sororities. I don’t know her, and I don’t want to cast dispersions on her, but it turns out that she wasn’t the greatest when it comes to making judgment calls.
The real tragedy is the needless and ignorant waste of life by someone's sister, friend, and daughter. For all the talk about America, and the land of oppurtunity, and about all the doors that are opened to you when you seek a college education... all of that doesn't mean anything when someone chooses to use their body as a chemistry set.
There are many educated, upper/middle-class abusers of this dirty drug. I personally know two bankers, a nurse or two, several mothers, and suspect a few people in even higher positions that use meth. It isn’t hard to find, and it isn’t that expensive. And believe it or not, it isn’t hard to point out a tweeker. I am not as anti-PC as some, but if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…
And speaking of that, I find it hard to believe that none of her sorority sisters had any idea she was into this sort of stuff. As I have said before, once the news of this incident broke, a lot of us Council Bluffs lifers immediately wondered if it had to do with meth. The girls in her sorority had to have had several occasions that may have raised the same question. As girly and as rah-rah as the greek societies are around here, someone had to have an idea. I bet if you dig just a little deeper, you will either find more users in her sorority, or at least a handful of girls that were willing to look the other way. Nice friends.
I don’t know what the answer is to the question of superficial, subjective, and theatrical news broadcasts, but as for this story, shame on them for trying to make these kids victims. All of the emergency blankets and computerized 911 satellite up-link towers in the world wouldn’t have saved them from the garbage they were willingly putting into their bodies.
As for drug use, I am at my wits end hearing about the idiots that get wrapped up in it. Iowa and Nebraska are full of people who are taxing the planet, the system, health care, and society in general by choosing to be nonparticipants, and by likewise choosing to live fast. And most of them do not die in tragic circumstances such as these two, but instead hang onto "life," in and out of programs, institutions, wasting the police department's time and money, and negatively influencing families and friends around them. And the onus is on those of us in the healthcare, ministry, and education systems to try to heal this wound on our country. Frustrating.
I guess what I am trying to say is that while death is always a tragedy; I have absolutely no use, and no sympathy for crack-heads and tweekers. You put that poison in your body yourself. Don’t use the news to make me feel guilty and sad for a week for people who were killing themselves and wasting life anyway. It's this girl's family that I feel sorry for.
Horns up.
A story here lately that received a lot of attention was the death of two college kids, who became lost during the last snow storm. They wandered away from their truck, and were found (eventually) dead from hypothermia. The news pulled every stop out to tug at the public’s heartstrings. While I hate to poke fun at anyone’s tragedy, I do want to point out that this story was not worth the coverage it received.
There were a lot of unanswered questions immediately, which made for a sexy story. Why were they in the middle of nowhere on a night that saw one of the worst winter storms we have had for a long time? Why did they get out of their truck? Why didn’t they have coats? When they found a shack/barn to hole-up in, why didn’t they stay there? Why did they make several calls to 911, but never take their advice and stay put? And ultimately, where were they (it took almost a week to recover both bodies)? Why did they find the boy first (why weren’t they together)?
The news was all over this one. There was a huge out-lash against the state of Nebraska because the 911 technology we have does not allow for immediate pin-point location ability from cell calls. There were those who blamed the state for the deaths. Then there was the big “pat ourselves on the back” story of all of the volunteers who mobilized to try to recover the bodies (at first it was a rescue mission, but became a recovery mission rather quickly). Fear came into play as the TV stations started calling in all sorts of experts to explain every last item you should have in your car to survive in such a situation; scaring the public into buying survival blankets, shovels for the car, and car candles. Lastly, the news really played up the “local-tragedy” aspect of the story… which incited candlelight vigils and prayer services.
Then, on the evening they finally found the girl, the truth (that many of us suspected) began to leak out. The couple had been stopped by police the night before under suspicion of driving under the influence. The phone calls to 911 were not entirely lucid and sober. The boy had chemicals not unlike cocaine and meth in his system. There were chemicals in the girl’s system as well. Oh, and a little fact that EVERY news broadcast forgot to mention even though it was known from the start, there was a bag of crank in the truck.
Here are two kids, high on drugs, who unfortunately were out in the middle of a rural county (presumably looking for a dealer) on an incredibly unsafe night. They avoided help from authorities via 911 because their judgments were skewed and they were afraid to be “caught” while stoned.
In my skeptical and callous opinion, the news wasted our time with this story by milking it for everything it was worth. In the end, it was an open and shut case. Two drug abusers, wandering in the cold, with no realistic sense of judgment, who ultimately froze to death. If they want to do groundbreaking journalism (which they don’t or they would have released all the facts at first and not covered up the drugs in the truck), they should do a piece of the proliferation of crank and meth in the area.
The news is always quick to point out when someone is busted cooking up meth. They always show these disheveled, toothless, scraggly people who look the part. But what they aren’t reporting is that the customers for this crap are not just the guy who changed your tires at Wal-Mart. For instance, this girl was a member of a Creighton University sorority. The news played her off as the sort of involved, educated, pretty, and motivated person you would expect to be found in an expensive Jesuit university’s sororities. I don’t know her, and I don’t want to cast dispersions on her, but it turns out that she wasn’t the greatest when it comes to making judgment calls.
The real tragedy is the needless and ignorant waste of life by someone's sister, friend, and daughter. For all the talk about America, and the land of oppurtunity, and about all the doors that are opened to you when you seek a college education... all of that doesn't mean anything when someone chooses to use their body as a chemistry set.
There are many educated, upper/middle-class abusers of this dirty drug. I personally know two bankers, a nurse or two, several mothers, and suspect a few people in even higher positions that use meth. It isn’t hard to find, and it isn’t that expensive. And believe it or not, it isn’t hard to point out a tweeker. I am not as anti-PC as some, but if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…
And speaking of that, I find it hard to believe that none of her sorority sisters had any idea she was into this sort of stuff. As I have said before, once the news of this incident broke, a lot of us Council Bluffs lifers immediately wondered if it had to do with meth. The girls in her sorority had to have had several occasions that may have raised the same question. As girly and as rah-rah as the greek societies are around here, someone had to have an idea. I bet if you dig just a little deeper, you will either find more users in her sorority, or at least a handful of girls that were willing to look the other way. Nice friends.
I don’t know what the answer is to the question of superficial, subjective, and theatrical news broadcasts, but as for this story, shame on them for trying to make these kids victims. All of the emergency blankets and computerized 911 satellite up-link towers in the world wouldn’t have saved them from the garbage they were willingly putting into their bodies.
As for drug use, I am at my wits end hearing about the idiots that get wrapped up in it. Iowa and Nebraska are full of people who are taxing the planet, the system, health care, and society in general by choosing to be nonparticipants, and by likewise choosing to live fast. And most of them do not die in tragic circumstances such as these two, but instead hang onto "life," in and out of programs, institutions, wasting the police department's time and money, and negatively influencing families and friends around them. And the onus is on those of us in the healthcare, ministry, and education systems to try to heal this wound on our country. Frustrating.
I guess what I am trying to say is that while death is always a tragedy; I have absolutely no use, and no sympathy for crack-heads and tweekers. You put that poison in your body yourself. Don’t use the news to make me feel guilty and sad for a week for people who were killing themselves and wasting life anyway. It's this girl's family that I feel sorry for.
Horns up.
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