Broaden Your News Sources

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a news junky. Seeking a variety of news sources is very important. While they all have bias, I focus on ones that are most reliable and specific journalists with the best reputations. It takes a bit of effort. Just google media bias and you can see where your news sources fall. 

How do I fit it in? First, in the morning I scan the local paper and the Washington Post. Then, while I get ready for work, I listen to NPR morning edition. During the day, I don't pay much attention to news but at the end of the day, I'll watch a variety of news stations. It rotates between PBS news and BBC, CBS and ABC. Then I rarely miss Rachel Maddow as she dives deep into stories with statistics, summaries of local reporting on topics and in depth interviews. Finally, I usually turn on Sky News from the UK to get a world view.

Over the weekend, I try to catch Washington Week on PBS, CBS Sunday Morning and at least one of the weekly news interview programs.

Many sources tend to follow the same story for a few days, so rotating provides a broader view of what is happening. They cannot report on everything. And sometimes one source hits on a story that others are not talking about. My inclination when I hear, "noone else is reporting this" is to ask if they just haven't caught it yet, the story cannot be corroborated, or it isn't fully true. If it interests me, I'll dig into it as best I can. If it seems big, I wait to see if other sources validate it. If not, I just view it with skepticism.

It's a lot of news to take in and I've been criticized for it. And recently when I told someone about the variety of sources I take in, he didn't believe me. So, above, I am explaining how it is possible. I'm not an expert. I can't read every story, every day. Sometimes I don't understand what I am reading or hearing. I'm simply trying to be broadly informed with reliable information. And sometimes, I'll take an hour or two to dig deeper - look for statistics to verify a story or look for local sources that may be better and understand more.

I also listen to real people and their experiences with things that are being reported. This is where real news starts. Ask questions and listen. Think about it - process the information and fact check.

It frustrates me to see people spread misinformation often just repeating someone's talking points or re-posting a conspiracy theory. I wish people would take time to think and do a little home work. Get a broader perspective. Be better informed and when you are making an argument, use reliable statistics, facts and sources.

Yes, all media is somewhat biased. We all are and journalists are human like us. But many among us try very hard to be honest and truthful. We try to be factual. Journalists have been an important part of our democracy for centuries. It's our responsibility to seek information that is reliable. Dismissing them all and relying on a single source is irresponsible citizenship in a democracy. Not everyone will be a news junky as I am hoping people will be a lot more careful about what and whom they believe. 

There are bad actors who are motivated to derail our democracy. Their first step is to have us not believe one another and question facts. We cannot solve problems, our leaders cannot govern, if we cannot even identify facts. It's going to crush us. Please turn off the shock jocks and learn to do some fact checking.

 

 There are some interesting benefits of wearing a mask. A parent recently told me that her youngster typically comes home during the first few weeks of school with a cold or flu. This year she hasn't. 

Another friend who has a family member who is a pediatrician at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh says admissions are way down there. Children are not suffering complications related to colds, flu or other respiratory issues that are typical this time of year.

Another friend was asked by her boss why she was wearing her mask when she was alone in her office.  She's finding that her allergies are less troublesome and it seems it's due to wearing the mask.

Those personal stories are pretty convincing evidence that wearing a mask is effective. We really can slow the spread of Covid by simply wearing a mask.  

Leadership

 As I was driving recently, over the radio came words that have resonated with me ever since. A preacher was talking about leadership as taught by Peter and Jesus. It was focused on being a good shepherd; mindful of the entire flock and ready to lift those in need. He talked about humility and being a service focused leader, ready to help others succeed and thrive.

What have your experiences been under leadership of bosses, coaches, pastors, organizations? As I reflect on the best and worst leaders I've encountered and take measure of their degrees of humility and service mindfulness, I find that the worst were lacking these qualities and the best were examples of great humility and were service minded.

In the worst, the leaders were self serving and gave little credit to those who worked under them. They focused on their "star players" and had little time for the ones they felt didn't meet their grade. They seldom sought input from the group but rather acted as though they alone had all the answers.  They belittled others and would step on whomever they needed in order to get more for themselves.

The best leaders were working right beside you and created a highly collaborative environment. They gave credit openly and they mentored. They were laser focused on the mission and asked for much from the team while working to ensure the team had what they needed to get the job done. They knew what was needed because they asked.  

The best advice I got from leaders still carry me. 

"You don't need to have all the answers but you need to know where to find them." This came from my First Sergeant when I got my sergeant stripes.

"Failure is not an option." This from my favorite boss and mentor and then he would lead or get out of the way.

A service focused leader is humble enough to seek better answers from those he or she leads and do what they can to ensure success. They lift everyone around them. We need this kind of leadership at all levels of our country.

Hate has no place in something better - click here!

Blogging reminds me that a headline may be misleading. It goes back to an old communication theory question. Is meaning assigned by the sender or the receiver? Fact is, the sender has their meaning and the receiver attaches theirs.

If you get an odd reaction to something you said, something you texted or something you posted, it may be a case of mixed up meaning. Is it what we said, how we said it or a word that sparked something we did not expect? Most problematic is that text messages, emails or posted messages have little fluidity. They offer no contextual information - facial expressions, tone of voice or ability to quickly understand a person's response to what we have said.

Another problem is that people don't read beyond headlines and often the headline is not representative of the entire message of the story being offered. Once in a while, someone responds to my facebook link of a blog but I can tell they didn't actually read the blog, just read the headline and thought they knew what I was writing about. 

Context is everything. Context provides us with a broader vision. We cannot get so lazy that we no longer seek context from one another. We cannot stop at a buzz word. We cannot cow to character assassination. We need to talk! We need to talk solutions and why we believe our solution may be best. Then we need to listen. Our solution may overlook something. Their solution may overlook something. If we can talk - really talk - we may come up with a better solution. Isn't that what we all want?

If we separate ourselves to the point that we don't actually talk with the fluidity of context, we are sunk. Headlines are misleading. Text messages across a void are misleading. We need to get together and talk! Teaching our sides to hate is not going to serve anyone well. Hate has no place in something better.

Ask me why I hate....

 If you ask me, "Why do you hate...", let me stop you right there. Spiritually, hatred is something I work very hard to avoid. I am vehemently opposed to some things and very repulsed by some things but I work very hard not to let the hardness of hatred take root in my spirit. Hatred blinds the opportunities of love. Love conquers all. I claim love as the source of my power.

It's very hard. It takes work and discipline. It means disengaging from the flash points - those comments, memes, situations - that could fuel those undercurrents that I suspect everyone has within. It means turning and embracing those things that I wish to be associated with spiritually. Honor, compassion, encouraging one another to reach for better, understanding, kindness, nurturing, truth, consistency, and most of all LOVE.

It is loving to help someone see how they can be better. It is loving to insist that someone be truthful and honorable. We don't do that by name calling or character assassination. We do that by inspiration and honoring them. And sometimes we have to do that by standing back and letting them fall while being ready to reach out our hand to lift them up.

Ask me why I don't hate and I will talk all day. I'll talk about how I see another way. If you ask me why I hate, I may have a question for you. Why do you?

The Potholes will come.

Soon the beauty of fall leaves will shift to winter in PA. Already we are watching the wooly bear caterpillar seeking predictions about the winter to come. Will it be a mild winter? When will the worst be?  Then OH those terrible roads. We NEED SOMEONE to get out there NOW and clear them!!

Then with cabin fever, we will be seeking signs of spring. Who sees the first robin?

Potholes! The Pennsylvania tradition will happen. SOMEONE needs to FIX those potholes! It's a PA tradition to complain about the potholes and often demand the worst be fixed fast. Magically, they slowly disappear and we shift into summer pleasures.

We travel to the state parks. We travel to the national parks and forests. We LOVE summers here in PA! We camp. We fish. We boat the waterways. 

Who cleared those roads for us? How did that happen? Who fixed those potholes? Who maintained those state and national parks? 

These are just a small example of things our taxes - state and federal - contribute to maintain. It's sometimes painful to pay taxes but taxes are our collective way of maintaining a better place for us to live. We can and should be involved in how our taxes are spent but NOT paying taxes is not a way to make us a better country. 

We all need to do our fair share. We all need to have a voice in how our share is used. Give a voice to your dollars. Make your dollars and your voice count! We need someone to clear our roads. We need our potholes fixed. We need public entities funded. We need to voice what we want funded! NOT funding these things is ludicrous. That is our social responsibility and in our individual self interest. It's simple common sense. 

 

What have we become as a nation?

 Are we the nation we once were? Or were we never that nation?

A revered gift from France, the statue of Liberty, reflected how that nation saw us. It symbolizes compassion; "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Obviously, we are not the symbol of light reflected in those words. We are not that nation within our own shores for our own citizens. Perhaps we never were but it seemed we once aspired to be.

We were once champions of democracy. We built strong alliances with other democratic nations and those working to be more democratic. NATO was viewed as a sacred bond that was created by common pain and spilled blood from WWI and WWII. We treated these nations as friends and shared a seat at the table where common interests were central. Our leadership has pulled away from initiatives like the Paris Climate accord, and insulted our friends in NATO. Instead, the focus has been to develop friendships with totalitarian leaders around the world. Perhaps under the surface we have lusted power and our love of democracy was too fragile. 

Once we were champions of humanitarian causes throughout the world. This, even while we struggled within our borders to be more humane to those in need. We respected leaders who called for us to keep working to better ourselves and our nation as well as reaching beyond our shores to voice a call for equality and justice. Perhaps we are more tribal and selfish and no longer aspire to be a humane force.

Once we were united in tackling diseases and helping lead infectious disease control. When Jonus Salk developed the polio vaccine, he didn't seek personal financial gain. It was an altruistic effort. There were no calls for "herd immunity". The disease affected about 35,000 people a year in the late 40's. That was enough to cause the science community to actively work on a remedy and the nation was unified behind it. Now with more than 200,000 dead from contracting COVID-19 in less than 6 months, we have a divided nation. We hear questions about the reported numbers, "pre-existing conditions", refusal to wear masks, and let there be "herd immunity". Is this who we are now? 

There is a cruel and crass undertone across the nation. It's dramatically reflected in our leadership with outrageous rhetoric and the policies supported by those who follow it. Every one of our institutions is under attack - the postal service, CIA, FBI, Justice system, journalists, public school system, Center for Infectious Disease, NIH, and even the National Weather Service. It's about unbridled control of information to silence calls for addressing and solving problems. It's fanning a lust for greed and violent impulses. 

Truth is no longer truth and facts are no longer facts. We have learned to distrust each other, question motives and fight one another. It seems we are not united in a solution to anything. There is no effort that we champion as a nation. We are a nation adrift and pulling ourselves apart at the seams. 

My heart aches as the destruction seems to be growing beyond repair. The only thing I know to do is NOT become part of the cruelty and crass behavior. AND VOTE!!!!