The Homicide Race

I was watching the news last night and, as is every night, there was a report of another couple of murders here in the greater KC area. As sick as the acts themselves are, what sickened me was the reporting of these horrors. Every news channel has a running tally of how many murders and each night the number climbs and climbs. Now, of course people are going to keep track. City halls, police departments, national crime survey's, what have you. But it seems to me that anytime we start reporting things in terms of numbers, it's like keeping score. We don't keep track of how many years we've been drinking, we count the days we haven't. There is always a sense of pride behind listing numbers. I've got this many cars, this many kids, this many cd's, seen this many concerts, and, oh yeah, had this many murders in my town. I'm so sick from this violence and sicker from the treatment of this violence by our news crews. I know it's there job to simply report and not comment, but there comes a time when the good of human kind has to come before journalistic integrity. Just once I'd like to see the handsome guy on Channel 5, right after saying KC has reached the 100 murder mark, say "and I just think that's horrible, something has to be done people."

You must be the change you seek,
Brad