This Week's News

A bevy of news stories seem to be garnering a lot of attention, whether these items are deserving of such overblown coverage or not. However, America’s “slow down to gawk at the care wreck” mentality of the majority of our population will never be sated. Our televisions are cluttered with dozens of channels devoted to covering the cornucopia of carnival-like diversions. Eyes were glued to the endless coverage that Anna Nicole Smith provided ad nauseum. While we should be analyzing things such as why gas prices are going up though oil prices remain moderately low; and what exactly is in the government stimulus package, and how it will effect us,; and why are Wall Street bankers crying about their bonuses being less than last year; many of us are riveted to the Michael Phelps saga, Alex Rodriguez and steroids (still), and………..

Fourteen children. 14 Children. F-O-U-R-T-E-E-N children. Nadya Suleman decided that six kids wasn’t enough, she had to have eight more. The more time has elapsed, the more bizarre this story becomes. Unlike other forms of media, some who have declared they will not pass judgment until all the facts are in; I hold not such reservations.
My feelings are rooted in a conservative attitude toward population growth, a limited amount of global resources, and a gratifying and fulfilling experience as a single parent of one child. Let’s see if I can find anything remotely redeeming in having eight kids in one pop when you already have six…without a husband…without any source of income…when your parents are already helping raise the other six…after they’ve lost a home…after they’ve filed for bankruptcy…while you’re receiving government assistance.
Oh, that’s right Ms. Suleman, you don’t think you’re receiving government assistance. You believe the $490 per month in food stamps, and the disability checks three of your kids get are not government assistance, but they are part of programs designed to help people in need. Oh. Like you needed eight more kids. Did you really need six kids to begin with, without any viable means of supporting them. There’s a room full of cuckoo clocks chiming at this very moment.
A dear friend of mine has eight children. Thankfully, she had them at various intervals. After hearing this nugget of information from one of my colleagues, I was initially appalled. What about the planet being overpopulated I railed? What about the dwindling open spaces I mourned? Who’s going to pay for these kids and their needs I chided? And then I got to know this woman. She is easily one of the finest, kindest, most compassionate individuals I have ever known, and am privileged to call her my friend. I quickly reversed my snap judgments. I surmised that if any human being existed on this planet that should have eight kids, and the world would be a better place because of it, it is this woman. Each of her children is bright, more pleasant, more respectful, and better behaved than the next. Did I mention these children are all home schooled either by my friend or her husband? Did I mention my friend is a PhD. candidate? These feelings of mine do not extend to Ms. Suleman.
She has had “work done” though she denies it. Her lips and nose are quite different now then they appeared in earlier photographs. She is one of the growing population of persons who holds others accountable for what happens to them, and has filed lawsuits to prove it. And now she is holding various forms of media for ransom so the public can hear what she has to say. She has hired publicists to handle the offers, and insulate her from anyone who may expose her for what she is. Publicist Joann Killeen states that “My job is to protect my client.” That’s something a lawyer or agent would say, not a publicist. The amount of damage control for a lunatic must be overwhelming.
Ms. Suleman stated that she plans to support her children by the employment she’ll gain from completing her college education. In the very next breath she stated that she will be there to nurture and care for all her children, a quality she believes many parents lack today. How does she plan on doing both, particularly when eight of your kids are in diapers, and it’s still undetermined whether any of them will have prolonged medical issues? I am aghast at this height of egocentricity. I weep for the children.
I am ashamed that this “news story” has so irked me. I am upset that I’ve succumbed to my sense of morbid curiosity. I suggest that we should give Ms. Suleman virtually no media attention. Let her and her idiocy languish in the middle pages of various print forms. Hopefully, her fifteen minutes will be over. This is one case where if we ignore her maybe she will just go away.
Likewise with the Michael Phelps tale. Leave him alone, let’s move on. Our President smoked pot and we are not obsessed with the fact. Michael Phelps is a swimmer, not someone recently nominated for sainthood. Same goes for A-Rod and steroids; he’s a baseball player, not John Gotti incarnate. It’s funny how some folks want to pass judgment on a decorated Olympian, and the baseball stars of the era, but not on an obviously disturbed, misguided, selfish, burden to society……or…..
those Wall Street bankers from the first paragraph, remember them. Am I the only one who’s pissed because the men running an industry that lost $34 billion dollars in 2008 “only” got an average bonus that exceeded inflation by 406%? Who else in America gets rewarded for not doing their job states Rick Newman of U.S. News and World Report? How did you miss that little news item? Right, we’re busy paying attention to a woman in California who could profit by not having a job at all, and exceeding the average household population by 700%. We should bail on the coverage of Phelps and A-Rod, and take a closer look at those who are getting your tax dollars to bail them out.