Here is some good news....but

Yet another rant about my good friends at National Public Radio. NPR is the only way to get the news and insight that I crave on my long commutes to and from work. Even though the attitude of the entire organization is decidedly liberal and a bit elitist. I overlook the left leaning spin and glean a good bit of actual news and analysis from the stories. 

Lately however; I have started yelling at my radio again, all by myself in the car. The inanity of some of the comments just leave me wondering what people do all day if they have time to be worried about such minutia. 

Here is my latest dilemma, I am sick to death of listening to a story that has one outcome, and then hearing how that outcome will negatively affect something or someone, no matter how positive the story is. Here is a fictitious example. 

News reader: "The 2.6 million dollar clean coal plant will be built in a small town in West Virginia bringing good paying jobs to an economically depressed region. Plant officials estimate 5000 jobs will be created, making this a boom for the entire economy of an otherwise depressed area. 

(All positive so far, jobs for poor people)." News reader continues: "However, a rare bird, the West Virginia Blue Tit lives on the same mountainside as the proposed plant construction site. The small bird has suffered habitat loss in the past and the construction of this plant could endanger the species. Local Audobon Society representatives say the plant should not be built due to the risk of harming the already frigile eco system." 

So while this example is fiction and was never really reported, it is emblamatic of the type of reporting I hear all day on NPR. There is ALWAYS a caveate no matter how small or how trivial it may be. In my mind, you cannot have it both ways. Either the poor and downtrodden of a rural area suddenly get really good jobs boosting the local economy, or we save an obscure bird. Which is it, becuase I know for a fact that if the plant in the story were not built because of environmental issues, the story would have been about the poverty and hopelessness of the people involved. 

I hope most Americans live, work and go about thier lives with not so much angst about every little thing. Most of us have learned that you cannot please everyone. When did the needs of the few start outweighing the needs of the many? When did policy and planning start including the obscure and the minor at the expense of the good of the many? In a way, this type of attitude is both condescending and elitist and I am sick of it. The little bird will find somewhere else to live and the plant will be built helping thousands of people who had little hope of gaining good jobs. Sounds like a good thing to me. There are enough worthy things to be concerned about in this life without manufactuing angst over some of the details. People as well as nature are more adaptable than we are getting credit for, including the blue tits.