Something About Nothing, By Julie Seedorf

I have spent the last week shuddering at headlines and wondering what has happened to humanity.

It doesn’t matter what page we turn in a newspaper or what news station we turn our channel to. It doesn’t matter what we stream on the Internet to see the news, it makes me want to stop the world, push rewind and let us look at ourselves in slow motion so we can change what happened. We might say, “What in the world are we doing that we have such chaos in the great United States of America?”

Guns are taking the lives of people for no good reason. When I say that it isn’t the guns, it might be the easy access to the guns, but it is the humans behind the guns that pull the trigger, whether it be to take someone else’s life or take their own.

Reading the comments after a story posted on the Internet from the newspaper, I shook my head and wondered what prompts someone to verbally massacre someone else because their opinion differs.

Another station reported currency manipulation by banks. Other news reported our cars are unsafe because of faulty airbags and the company knew. People have to start a Go Fund Me account because they can’t pay their medical bills. More and more people have to rely on help to put food on their table.

There is more, but just those headlines made me tired. Then our Legislature couldn’t get their job done, and again they are at odds. Those stories alone are overwhelming. The stories day after day and week after week change all of our moods. Do they make us into less caring and more violent people?

If I would tend to always focus on the news when I looked at our country, I would believe there are no good, salt-of-the-earth type people left. But they are here. They are silently working every day, helping friends, neighbors and families. They are not in the news because good news seems to be silent. You might see a blurb in between the bad news, a quick story to give us hope before they hit us with more anguish. As a nation we seem to have a feeding frenzy where we need to watch violence on our television and we feed on the violence in the news. Do we bring it on ourselves because we silent people don’t say “Enough”?

Why do I write about his today? What does this have to do with Memorial Day? I look at the things happening in our country that seem to threaten our freedom and make us shake our heads, and I wonder what the veterans of the wars who are no longer with us would say. Is this what they fought for?

Is this what our salt-of-the earth men and women are fighting for today, to preserve our freedom, not only from the violence overseas but the violence in America?

They say violent crime is down, but because of the news it seems it is out of control.

A recent picture in the paper was that of a soldier holding his newborn baby. He had to leave. He was to be deployed. The picture was heart-wrenching. Every day for many, many years, that scenario has played out in our country. The sacrifices men and women have made for years for us need our thanks.

Today I want to add our police men and women to someone I want to thank. They too protect our freedom. The headlines as I write this, report the death of a policewoman gunned down in the city of Omaha. It was to be her last day before a delayed maternity leave so she could take care of her baby that had been born prematurely and was finally being released from the hospital. She too gave her life for our freedom. A few years ago a young Montana state trooper was gunned down after a routine traffic stop. He was the grandson of a friend of mine. He came from a long line of law enforcement who felt they were called to the uniform to protect our citizens. This family, too, made the ultimate sacrifice.

What do our soldiers and our law enforcement agencies who take care of our freedom feel when we show disrespect to the flag and disrespect for their positions? We take them for granted and we turn our attention and give more media to murderers and those who break the law. It is the criminals that become famous.

Today, for one day, turn off the news, and look for the good in the person next to you. See the American Legion members, the VFW members and members of all the organizations that come together and represent all that is good with our country. Visit the memorials, read about the sacrifice and see the goodness in the people who protected us over the years. Say thank you to your community police.

These people are in the trenches every day. Soldiers see things and are forced to do things unimaginable to most of us. Many of our troops have to endure more than one tour. Law enforcement deals with danger in a different way, but those things stay with them forever and have lasting effects on them and their families.

We need to take the time to examine the past, say thank you, and somehow in the midst of all the headlines, find the goodness in those silent people who make up our country. It is those quiet, unassuming people who will make our country strong and make those veterans proud. Pass the knowledge of what came before unto your children so they fully understand what others sacrificed so they can have a tomorrow. Support those who protect us every single day and say thank you. Don’t take that freedom for granted.

Thank you for all those who preserve our freedom.

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at hermionyvidaliabooks@gmail.com. Her Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/julie.