Sigh

Mike Littwin of the Denver Post writes a smart, satirical article relating to news coverage of the Financial Meltdown, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, and the latest Teleprompter brouhaha. He accurately points out the difficulties understanding the elements that caused the financial problems, and even more, the disagreements that are occurring in what plans will move us forward.

It’s all tough for a citizen to understand, and we count on our news media to inform. True, there have been many useful articles to that end, although I have yet to encounter any in a newspaper (hmmm…..), but, since the study of economics can consume a lifetime of research, penning these articles is hard. Reading them likewise. It all takes effort.

And so, as Littwin points out, the press devolves into a debate about President Obama’s use of the teleprompter, because it is easy and trivial. National Watchdogs? Informers of the Citizenry? Defenders of Democracy? Arrgh! No!

Good job, Mike. Focus our attention back where it matters: How are we going to clean up the financial mess? Prevent its reoccurrence? What’s our exit strategy for Afghanistan? What do we need to know and do to make it possible?

And then I scrolled down to the comments, expected to see more of what I wrote in the previous paragraph. I was (sadly) mistaken. Post after post of anti Obama, ant-government screed (and anti-Littwin thrown in for good measure.)

There is so much potential in the Internet. We can have dialogues with people we’ve never met, or those closer to home who need a little time to digest and respond to what we’ve put forth. We can add data to strengthen arguments, point out where we think data has been mis-interpreted, or even argue for a different conclusion. Through it all, we can become a smarter and better informed citizenry, better able to carry out our civic duty and advance our society to what we’d like it to become.

But, we’ve never accomplished much when we rant and yell and call each other names. Sadly, articles like Mr. Littwin’s need to be written, and re-written, and written again, as a constant reminder to focus on the important, the hard, the meaningful. The comments he received just prove how many more times it will have to be said.