So there I am at work yesterday, doing whatever it is I do at a work and chatting with the lady who hired me to run her party. She's a good customer and a person I know fairly well and a very nice person. Very bright too. So when I mentioned recent events in Myanmar I was surprised to learn that she had heard nothing of the devastating cyclone and the subsequent suffering of the Myanmar people under their military government that has refused most of the international disaster relief aid offered by the United Nations and the world at large, leaving almost two million people literally drowning and in imminent danger of starvation and disease. I figured that in this day and age you'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard at least something about this horrible story.
So we went back to passing the time talking about our families and different recipes and the weather while we prepared food for her guests. She explained that she had ceased reading newspapers and listening to news broadcasts and was happier for it. Instead of being surprised or impatient with her I figured maybe this lady's on to something. She didn't have to waste any skull space pondering the great evil permeating much the world and the incomprehensible reports of corruption and incompetence about the current administration of our own country. Like I said, this is a bright lady, not the sort of airhead you normally associate with beng clueless about world events. She had made a conscious decision to divorce herself from what she felt was an increasingly traumatic and confusing part of her life.
Well, sometimes I wish i could join her. Think of the things I wouldn't have to know. Take Myanmar, for instance: I could still have it pegged as Burma, a slice of tropical paradise bordering the South China Sea filled with happy and friendly people, no head scratching involved over the horrid turn of events there. I could think of the United Nations as an effective and well-meaning association of all the nations on this earth woking to promote global understanding and congeniality, all sweetness and light. I could blithely assume that my own nation continued to enjoy its world status as a beacon of liberty and moral goodness, an example to all nations of peaceful prosperity, human rights and humanitarian intentions. I could ponder Africa and think how wonderful a place it must be to live in with it's beauty and diversity, emerging nations finding their way peacefully out of their colonial past side by side in brotherhood and cooperation.
I could imagine the peaceful bliss of Islam, that religion bringing inner peace and tranquility to its followers all over the world. I could figure that China left her oppressive ways in the past and is now pursuing the sort of peaceful prosperity sought by many nations, respecting international law and embracing friendly relations with her ancient neighbor Tibet. I could think of India and imagine that her new prosperity extends to all of her billion citizens, a nation on a journey out of the Dark Ages, the high tide lifting all boats. And in Mexico I could guess that the several dozen families who control the entire nation's wealth have had a change of heart and that the incredible bounty of that nation is now being shared with all Mexicans, their revolution of the early 20th century finally bearing fruit and all corruption at every government level a thing of he past.
I could imagine that in our next presidential election Americans will all vote for the person they feel will best run our country according to the idealistic blueprint that is our Constitution, and no candidate will play on racial fears. I could see the performances of some of our talented singers and actors and enjoy only their work, assuming their personal lives are in order and none of our business anyway. I could imagine that our own Christian preachers are busy spreading the joyful word of the Gospels and promoting peace, tolerance and love as always, wisely eschewing the worldly temptations of politics and power. I could ponder the great corporations of America, providing decent jobs to our citizens, paying their fair share of taxes and taking great pains to wield their power responsibly.
Wow, I'm really liking this new world in my head! Without news reports, athletes are all talented hardworking competitors dedicated to fair play, let the best and or woman win in honorable competition. Cable TV news commentators are thoughtful intellectuals seeking to broaden understanding and good will among Americans. Our elected representatives in Congress are earnest public servants seeking the betterment of all our nation's citizens, with no thought of partisan bickering or looting of the treasury for vanity projects at the expense of others. New Orleans is rising majestically from near disaster with a united and inspiring national effort to help rebuild the shattered lives of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, a new Golden Age looming for the Crescent City.
In my new world, water boarding is a new sport for the kids to enjoy by the ocean. In France and the rest of Europe, anti-semetism is a thing of the past and in Israel anti-arabism is not happening. Russia is completing the peaceful transformation from the USSR to become a peaceful neighbor trading fairly with the world community, no longer feared and mistrusted. Pakistan is educating all her children, not just the privileged minority. The world is cooperating on dwindling oil resources and working feverishly together to find new sources of energy and to cease the pollution of our environment. The entire world is mobilized to end starvation in every corner of the planet, no matter what the brand of politics being practiced in the stricken regions.
Like the old song says: "And I say to myself, what a wonderful world..." Or the beautiful new song by John Fogerty: "Don't you wish it was true." Yeah, I do, I do wish it was true. And so I understand the motivation to ignore the news of this world. Lollipops and roses are wonderful things to contemplate and we should never lose our ability to focus on what's beautiful and good and worthy about humanity and this world around us. But unfortunately, I'm one of those people who has to know, and so I read the newspapers and listen to the news broadcast and surf the net for information, and sometimes get pretty peeved that here we are in the 21st century still pissing all over the house and each other.
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