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Cheryl Hughes: Us

There is something wrong with the satellite TV connection in my BBC room.  I mention this because I have been unable to watch the news in the mornings on my favorite news channel, HLN.  Every morning at 5:30, I fix myself a cup of coffee and a strawberry Poptart then settle into my old comfy chair—the one with one broken leg that is up on a couple of bricks—and watch the news on HLN.  It is a morning ritual that is near and dear to my heart.

I have tried to figure out the reason for the blank screen, tracing wires, unplugging and plugging in cords, all to no avail.   The TV works on the video feed and on the Netflix feed, but not on the satellite feed.  I spent a few mornings watching TV in the living room, but it’s just not the same.  Like Sheldon Cooper, I have my spot, and no other spot will do.

I watch the news, I have a habit of calling some of the people idiots, ignorant or insane.  I say things like, “Unbelievable” or “That’s crazy” or “Are you really going to go there?”  By and large, however, I am able to disconnect from the news clamor once I turn off the TV then I get on with my day.  My daughter has a hard time doing that.  

We had dinner together one night last week, and we watched the evening news together.  The news that evening consisted mainly of the he-said/she-said hoopla on the Supreme Court nomination.

“Mom, I have gotten to the point that I can barely watch the news anymore,” she said.  “It makes me so discouraged that I don’t even want to live in this country sometimes.”

“You have to remember,” I said, “that the news is not this country.”  

The news focuses on what is going wrong in this country: hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, fire, assault, murder and theft.  Those things do happen, but most of us don’t experience those things on a daily basis.  The news makes us feel, however, that all of those things are eminent and one or all of them are going to get us as soon as we step out the back door.

There are approximately 327 million people in this country, and many of us are trying to help one another and make our little corner of the world a better place.  I have gained this fresh perspective, since I lost the satellite feed on the TV in my BBC room.  I have been forced to watch educational channels like KET and WKU. 

 I have watched shows about people helping each other in this country and shows about people in this country helping people in other countries.  I have watched people raise crops and form co-ops that help provide health care and education for their communities.  I’ve watched people hunt and fish together and build furniture together and plant flowers together and teach others how to sew and cook.  I’ve gotten a good doseof who we really are.

We are not the news and we are not the 536 people quarrelling with each other in the play pen on Capitol Hill.  We face natural disasters together by helping each other through those hard times.  We are not murders and thieves and terrorists.  We are Americans.  We are US.  And by God’s grace we will always be.

Still, I really wish I could figure out how to get the satellite feed back onto my TV in the BBC room.

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