During the Christmas Season of one year, the newspaper ran a series of articles that in particular ways reflected the spirit of the Season. Each one was countered by other articles contradicting what appeared in the affirmative articles. For example, The Minneapolis newspaper ran an article on the front page (A Section) entitled: Yes, Virginia, Minnesota really is nice. It began with the following paragraph: Researchers not only have proven that Minnesota Nice exists, they’ve quantified it. When it comes to behaviors that lead to successful communities, we consistently finish near the top. The implication is that decency and good will offer hope for society. I agree with that statement, but we have diluted some of it.
On the front page of the B Section, and unrelated to the series noted above, appeared an article entitled: Unlike Santa, cops find more naughty than nice. Before listing the stops of the squad car the reporter wrote: . . . . step with us into a few patrol cars for a few hours before Christmas Eve. Words are those from officers’ own reports. There followed sixteen reports occurring from 1:37 a.m. to 4:07 a.m. twenty seven and a half hours later. One stop required three and a half hours from initiation to the booking of the recalcitrant. That entry reads: Responded to report of red car in a ditch, occupied by two people. The 20-year-old driver was passed out in the driver’s seat, keys in the ignition. He failed a sobriety test and blew a-19. Vehicle towed, pair cited, and booked. The stories multiply. Those stories often seem eerie in a civilized society. There was nothing here to illustrate Minnesota Nice. The police did their duty.
The Associated Press released its ten lead stories of 2012. They were, in order: 1-Mass Shootings; 2-U S Election; 3-Superstorm; 4-Obamacare; 5-Libya; 6-Penn state; 7-U S Economy; 8-Fiscal Cliff; 9-Gay Marriage; and, 10-Syria. What did these cover? The news was preoccupied with: 1-mass killings of persons, especially students and teachers in various parts of the world; 2-bitter politics that included excesses in nearly everything related to electioneering; 3-great losses in life and property related to historical storms of enormous damage to life and property; 4- costs and issues related to the future of health care in the United States and the politicization of the processes; 5- horror of civil warfare that cost tens of thousands of lives in massive attacks on citizens by governments; 6- scandal of a coach and cover-up in an extensive homosexual practice in a college; 7- drag-out of years of recession in the United States (and the world) brought on by poor and sometimes illegal practices by business establishments and leaders; 8- fear of a fiscal cliff that is so threatening that new programs will be needed to right the circumstances of trillions of dollars of debt in government and the public; 9- gay marriage that is presumed to change the definition of marriage and the family as known from the beginning of human history, with moral issues in question; and, 10- internal problems leading to warfare, to division in the world over Israeli rights and government with tendencies to divide the world, once again, into blocs threatening military activation. News providers include human advancements, adjustments to nature for benefit, or assistance in areas of human need, or the affirmatives of public education, and the like, but dilute it with the follies of the human race in nearly every context of life. Religion appears for its failures of priests and ministers; business for its excesses in greed; family for breakdowns and privacy invasion; and education sullied with distractions. So the story may be extended. Values, morals, service, goals, ambitions, planning, balances, resources, and the like may be muted in the folly, tragedy, evasion and ignorance of the age. We haven’t touched on the daily news of growing tragedies caused by alcohol, drugs, sex-drenching, youth violence, obesity and child neglect. A future flourishing society, even if it is avowed to be humanistic and secular only, will have to offer more of its time and talent to affirmations, morals and values. To this objective the Christian ought to be both verbal and supportive. Without voices of values and morals, with peaceful activism, a society will fail and die carrying tragedy of lives with that decline. It has happened before and will happen again. We wonder if news can ever be presented to model a better social conduct. The news does accent the errors of mankind, but we declare the affirmative life – working to gain it so to honor self and God. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020