So, the other day on my way to work, I was listening to some insipid morning show on the radio, and they were discussing a variety of news events. The first item concerned some local child-molestation case, and the others, which I can't recall specifically, had something to do with political issues. This particular show, like many other morning radio shows, features a lead guy with one other guy and a woman as sidekicks, and the woman always does the news. (Why are so many shows set up like this? WHY?? That's a topic for another entry.) Anyway, the woman talked (insipidly) about the child-molestation case for a while, and then about one of the political issues (again, insipidly), and then about the other political issue (can you guess my take on her coverage of this one?). And at the end of her brilliant expose, the lead guy spoke up, and the conversation went something like this:
LEAD GUY: You know, with all the problems in my own life, I just can't bring myself to care about this stuff. I just don't have the energy. Well, except for the child molestation--I do care about that.
WOMAN: Well, of course you care about THAT--you have children.
Now, I have a mind like a steel trap. I immediately latched onto that comment and thought, "So, the implication is that if you don't have children, you don't give a shit about child molestation issues. You could care less if children get molested. Why would you? After all, you don't have children, and so you don't care about children."
As one of the Childfree, I take offense to this assumption. And I'll write more about this later. This is my New Crusade. Stay tuned.
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“If you’re looking for a man who will knock you off your feet, just make sure he isn’t the type to leave you lying on the floor.”
2 comments:
I have children and think there are more important things to hear on the radio than a histrionic and potentially inaccurate story about some alleged crime that may or may not have occurred. How about that for a crusade? I am already damned by virtue of my client pool, so why not? By the way, my colleague and I finally prevailed and convinced a jury to release a sex offender!
A widespread and erroneous assumption in this culture is that narrow self-interest is the single defining basis of all meaning and value, and any other consideration is either delusional or fake or just ignorant of reality. It follows NATURALLY that if I'm the owner of property - let's say a car, an expensive stereo, a child - then I have something to lose if someone else steals, harms, or somehow tampers with said property. Otherwise, not my problem. Hence, Newsguy has nothing at stake in stories about abstractions such as war, famine, genocide, or corporate takeover of government, but anything about kids (or dogs or guns or civil unions) touches him deeply.
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