Politics of the People

I know that pretty much no one will read this. It's boring to most people plain and simple. I worry for the people of this country and I worry because I am guilty of the same things. It is very hard to be tuned into the ills of the world on a regular basis. It's depressing and it's easier to just flip the channel or change the subject. I do it all the time. We all do it all the time. Something struck me yesterday that was said and it struck me because I had a slight personal touch on the subject. A couple of days ago a woman committed suicide about 200 feet from my front door. She did it on the street and made the Police do it for her. It's a sad story on a couple levels. The main reason was she ended her life and a life lost is just sad. The other reason is it happened very quickly. I had just driven by her home minutes before and there was no commotion on the street. Less than twenty minutes later a friend and neighbor called to say someone had been shot out front of her apartment. Without any information the immediate thought was something like a drug shooting had happened and we rushed back home. There was a definite feeling of frustration with people in the neighborhood and the Police that were there. It would be several hours before we got any concrete information. A woman called the Police to say she was going to kill herself. She had a BB gun in her hand that was a pistol shape. She pointed it at the Officers and they shot her. A large part of me respects the officer for protecting themselves from a woman who could easily be seen as having a deadly weapon. The actions by the police afterwards and the Police Chief seemed to show that they were very unsure how to proceed. Also that the situation probably should have been handled differently but with the resources they had the best was done.

The Reason I go into all this detail is because this is Maine. Police shootings of any kind are rare. Police assisted suicide is even more rare. A gun that goes off in this state not aimed at a target or a deer is rare. This is a news story and deserves investigation. The problem was most people outside of this town have already moved on. I talked with all kinds of people last night and the only reason why many of them knew this happened was because of my Facebook status. Sometimes we are too easily distracted. There are two big stories right now in the news that are overshadowed by much smaller stories.

1. North Dakota's Red River has broken a water rise record of 40.2 feet. Look up at your ceiling. Most peoples ceilings are 10-12 feet from the floor up. Now imagine that as a 4 story building and it's water. Oh and you're under it. All of a sudden Duke's loss last night not a big deal.

2. United States and Japan will attempt to shoot down a rocket launch by North Korea. This is still the fanatical leader of North Korea developing Nuclear weapons. This is a big deal. To a crazy person that might be the camel that breaks his back. Not to mention his health has been in question and when you can't even die without it sending you're country into complete turmoil then you do not have a stable government......with Atom Bombs. Maybe you missed that because rapper TI was sentenced to 1 year in Jail today.

Here is the good news though. We don't have to follow everything all the time but we can do a little better. We complain the News Media is the reason for all the ills of societal ignorance. Look they are a business. They print and display what you want to see and read. If you aren't interested in North Korea they stop printing it but if you cannot get enough of how Kaylee's Mom like to Party and make out with Boys then that's what you get.

You can do it all though. You can read about Brangelina and their baby wrangling and about Russia's issues with the Missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. We have the technology and you all have the ability. You might even find a story out there that really gets you interested in something. Maybe even allow you to put together a new opinion.