Jeff Burgar
Bad mouthing your neighbour, are you?
Wondering why all those folks are getting Queen’s Jubilee medals and you are not? So, you criticize?
As criticism goes, the entire media industry gets more than its share. It comes with the territory. Many people equate the reporting of unusual or noteworthy happenings, as slanted to what they call “negative.” As one example, if crime is up, that’s noteworthy. But critics blame media for bad mouthing the community.
You have probably heard the critic: “Is that what you have to do to sell newspapers?” Or, “I don’t watch any news. It is always so negative.”
We apologize on behalf of news folks everywhere. But in defence, many people do like to know when a politician isn’t doing anything to collect a paycheque.
And, perversely, some people just have to say, “I can’t stand it when they report -30 temperatures. It is so depressing.” And, of course, some people slam those in the news who are doing, or have done, good things. Ever smugly smirked, “Look at that show off?” Sorry, that action shows your character, not the person being recognized.
Then there is the knee-jerk comment, when something happens that prompts a little bit of outrage, and the words – “That’s what’s wrong with this town.”
We hate bringing such people ‘negative’ news. But “that” is the way it is in 99 per cent of all towns, counties, and cities. Maybe not quite the same, but as history does not repeat itself, things certainly do rhyme.
Perhaps many of us are just doing what our DNA tells us to do. It is just our personality coming through. Possibly, it was the way we were raised. Those dang parents! Or lack thereof. Of course, it’s all their fault it is so hard to say something nice.
In fact, blaming others is tradition these days. As long as you are the right personality, smiley face, claiming to be downtrodden and oppressed, it’s quite permissible to go out and trash entire cultures, professions, industries and countries.
But we have to ask, in what almost seems like spoiling the moment – “Whatever possessed you, if you are not one of them, to want to bash a Jubilee awardee?”
Yipping on this topic started some time ago. Long before last week’s new round of presentations. More or less along the lines of, “Why the heck did that yo-yo get a medal?” Why is the newspaper wasting space on a photo of that person? It’s good to know radio didn’t waste airtime mentioning this.
In our minds, a whole lot of even more people, everywhere, are deserving of the Jubilee medals. The medals are basically awards and recognition for volunteerism and community service. It cannot be said enough, there are many, many people in every community deserving of such. Call them truly unsung heroes and heroines.
The only difference between those with medals and those without is, somebody didn’t nominate them. About as simple as that. We could start to list them, but no matter how long our list, it would still miss good people. That it would be a long, long list is good news for everybody in every community.
Even the bashers.