Warning: Rant Ahead

And now for a negative rant about something that happened today that I wanted to share separate from my normal post for those who don't like it when I get real about the idiotic things that people do and say, or things that happen that bother me.

If you're one of those people who can't handle it when I'm not my usual witty, upbeat self (ha!), you might want to skip over this post...hence, the warning in the title.

First off, let me just say that I hate watching the news because the way they report and sensationalize things is upsetting to me. I watch the news mostly for the weather, and most other news I get from reading.

I want the truth, I want to be informed, but I prefer to read the news because that way I can pick and choose what I focus on and not have to hear the same stories over and over, with reporters asking their same dumb questions over and over.

After Stacey and her mom left, this woman who was there with her husband gets bored and decides that she needs some 'mindless tv', so she asks the nurse to turn on the news.

Really...mindless? I guess the chemo room just wasn't depressing enough for her. Or maybe she needed to escape the painful reality that was in front of her.

So, while the only other patients who are in my pod catch some zzz's, and the 'mindless' woman gets up and leaves the room for an eternity because she's not getting chemo and can come and go as she pleases (she probably went out for a smoke), I get to listen to the daily body count; hear a story about a plane crashing into a home in Orlando; about cops shooting a guy 85 times because he had an unfired gun in his hand; about rape; about murder; about terrible, awful things happening to good, unsuspecting people...because it's their job to report these tragedies, and that's the kind of information the vast majority of our country wants, needs, craves.

It's mind-numbing and desensitizing. Instead of honoring the victims it turns them into a 'story'...a way to get better ratings, and subsequently a way to make more money.

Reminds me of these lyrics:

I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something, something I can use
People love it when you lose, they love dirty laundry

Well, I could've been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don't have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear, give us dirty laundry

We got the bubbleheaded bleach-blonde, comes on at 5
She can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye
It's interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry

Can we film the operation? Is the head dead yet?
You know the boys in the newsroom got a running bet
Get the widow on the set, we need dirty laundry

You don't really need to find out what's going on
You don't really want to know just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone, keep your dirty laundry

Dirty little secrets, dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody's pie
Love to cut you down to size, we love dirty laundry

We can do the innuendo, we can dance and sing
When it's said and done, we haven't told you a thing
We all know that crap is king, give us dirty laundry

Dirty Laundry - Don Henley/The Eagles

I believe there is a time and a place for everything. A room full of people who are fighting for their lives is neither the place nor the time for the doom and gloom of the news. Or for that matter, thinking of yourself and what it is you want with no regard to how it might affect others around you.

Mindless? I say clueless. And incredibly selfish.

Word.