It's always new...or is it?

Every afternoon I preview the upcoming shows for that night on the TV in order to make sure that the shows we might want to watch at a later date, are recorded on the PVR. And every time I see the nightly news broadcast marked ‘new’, it surprises me. Why??? I’ve asked myself the question many many times. Of course the news is new, I tell myself. Don’t be silly! Or is it as it says in Ecclesiastes 1:9 [MSG] “What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There's nothing new on this earth. Year after year it's the same old thing.”

I must admit that seems to be the truth of the matter most nights. The news consists of political scandals from both here and abroad, loss of life due to extreme weather, natural disasters, or mass shootings. Every story seems to highlight the depraved side of human nature. Very few focus on what is positive or good. The writer of Ecclesiastes made a good point when he was writing all those eons ago.

But those evening news broadcasts don’t seem to echo my experience of life, a life that, while it is filled with disasters, sickness, and other not so nice events, is basically good. The sun comes up. The rain and snow replenish the water table. Friends are there offering love and support. We live in a country where the politicians are elected by the people and that means we, the people, control who sits in the seats of power.

In order to turn some of that bad news into better, or even good news, we are called upon to take responsibility, to make sure that our politicians put the needed financial resources and laws into place to deal with them. It might hurt our pocketbook a little but the alternative is unthinkable. The extreme nature weather we have been experiencing has been linked to global warming and that is something that only WE can make a difference in.

That why I liked the quote below by Samantha Power [who served as the 28th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017] when I read it. A quote which also answered my question about why the evening news being marked as ‘new’ bothered me so much. If it is to be altered than only we can do it!

“It is easy to get used to the morning news, habituated. But don’t. The morning news is yours to alter.“

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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