{"id":4523,"date":"2009-05-01T14:29:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T20:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/dealing-with-uncertain-times\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:46:15","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:46:15","slug":"dealing-with-uncertain-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/dealing-with-uncertain-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with uncertain times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The media does sometimes exaggerate, but there\u2019s much to be concerned about right now. There\u2019s also a lot you can do to make sure you\u2019re ready for whatever lies ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> has been criticized by some this week for publicly raising the question about whether the sudden death of a six-year-old boy might have been related to the swine flu<\/a>. The newspaper has been accused by some of unnecessarily spreading fear.<\/p>\n

But, while most journalists including me look back from time to time and realize they should have done something differently, I don\u2019t think it was unreasonable for the Sun-News to raise the question.<\/p>\n

Of course, the boy didn\u2019t have swine flu<\/a>, or it would have been international news by now. We knew from the get-go that swine flu probably didn\u2019t cause his death, but that doesn\u2019t mean the media should ignore the situation. People see the headlines. They\u2019re thinking about the flu. Some are taking extra precautions.<\/p>\n

Then a boy who attends their child\u2019s elementary school dies suddenly. Police tell the newspaper he had a fever before being sent home hours before his death. People are talking. And wondering. Rumors spread.<\/p>\n

Addressing that situation isn\u2019t creating media frenzy. It\u2019s the responsibility of the media to help society determine what\u2019s true and what isn\u2019t. And the Sun-News was very careful to quote several officials in its article as saying there was nothing to indicate that swine flu caused the boy\u2019s death but that tests would give a final determination.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the media does create frenzies all the time, even though I don\u2019t think that was the case in this situation. Many media outlets often exaggerate and overplay stories and find every excuse to mention something that sells even long after the news value has been exhausted.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of examples of the media unnecessarily spreading fear without putting it in the proper context. Here\u2019s one story that\u2019s probably a little too alarmist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Media frenzy is one reason it\u2019s important for people to educate themselves. Learn the facts. The Internet makes it easy to cut through the media filter to the truth, if you\u2019re looking.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say there\u2019s no reason to be alarmed. The truth is that there\u2019s a lot out there right now to be concerned about. We don\u2019t really know how bad the swine flu will get. The economy is still in a dangerous slump. We\u2019re still fighting two wars. Terrorism is a real threat. There\u2019s the energy crisis and the health-care crisis and the immigration crisis. Corruption has seeped into the very core of our political system. And our nation\u2019s infrastructure is in serious need of repair.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot you can do about it<\/span><\/p>\n

The good news, however, is that times have been tough before. Sure, we currently face a lot of challenges, but there\u2019s also a lot we can do about it, individually and collectively.<\/p>\n

Worried about the swine flu? Get a good night of sleep. Wash your hands after a trip to the restroom. (Shouldn\u2019t you already be doing that?) Eat some berries. They\u2019re full of immune-system building antioxidants.<\/p>\n

Worried about the economy? Skip eating out and send some extra money to your credit card, or put it in savings. Find ways to reduce expenses. Grow a vegetable garden. It\u2019ll save you money, and you\u2019ll be healthier (which reduces the threat of swine flu). Start a small business.<\/p>\n

Energy? You can do small things like spending less than $75 to insulate your garage door with Styrofoam. If your water heater, freezer or other appliances are located in your garage, that will reduce your energy costs a bit. Thinking on a larger scale? Why not convert your home to solar? We live in the right climate, and government incentives<\/a> make it more doable than in the past.<\/p>\n

Worried about the bigger picture? Think all of this is too much and we might not survive it? Learn how to become less dependent on the system (start with a vegetable garden and solar panels). If you\u2019re so inclined, pray. Get more involved in a community of people, such as a church, who would help each other in bad times.<\/p>\n

Store some water and food in your garage and take other preparedness steps recommended by the American Red Cross<\/a>. If you think things might get crazy enough that you\u2019ll need to defend yourself and your home and want to buy a gun, go for it, but only if you\u2019re also going to learn how to use it responsibly.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, work on changing the system. Vote. Give money to charity. Volunteer with a political group or another important cause. Help your neighbor when you see a need.<\/p>\n

The bottom line<\/span><\/p>\n

The point is that there is a lot to be concerned about. The media is always going to tell us about it, and will sometimes exaggerate it. That\u2019s why we must cut through the filter, educate ourselves on what\u2019s really going on and then do what we can to try to change things and prepare for whatever is coming.<\/p>\n

As has always been the case, the world is uncertain. But there\u2019s a lot we can do to make sure we\u2019re ready for whatever lies ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The media does sometimes exaggerate, but there\u2019s much to be concerned about right now. There\u2019s also a lot you can do to make sure you\u2019re ready for whatever lies ahead. The Las Cruces Sun-News has been criticized by some this week for publicly raising the question about whether the sudden death of a six-year-old boy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haussamen-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}