WHAT THE ROYAL WEDDING TAUGHT ME

The Royal Wedding

A school shooting that claimed the lives of 10

A report that the suicide rate (thoughts, and attempts) among teens has doubled and that there is a spike in cases during the spring and fall seasons and a dip in the summer, coinciding with a typical school year.

All headlines over the last week!

So guess what got the most attention?  By far, the royal wedding.   What a horrible commentary on our society that a show with no societal value can push aside issues that are truly important.  Not just for a few hours, days, or weeks, but for months we have been inundated with speculations of dress, food and guests.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the music, the parade (especially when the horses pooped) and the pomp and circumstance.  That is ALL it is, a nice event about a modern Cinderella story that just made for good TV.

Where were most of the major network reporters during the school shooting?  In England, wearing funny hats and wondering who would walk the bride down the aisle.  To be fair, the networks would occasionally break from the wedding to cover the shooting but it was easy to tell what story got the most air time. What really scares me is how immune people are becoming to tragedy.  The day of the wedding, I had just finished working out at the gym and had perched my oversized, out of shape, derriere in the food café.  That is the place that all of the in shape folks go to order kale and ice cream smoothies.  Of course, TV’s surrounded the area.  Whenever a royal wedding clip would appear, everyone stopped and intently watched the royal wave.  As soon as the coverage switched to the horrific shooting, attention was focused on Facebook posts and tweets.

In regards to the report about suicide among teens.  Try to find it.  The media buried it in the archives of irrelevance.  I work with those children; I hear their sadness and pain that they fear to disclose.  Now the second leading cause of deaths among youths, it is a national tragedy that no one wants to discuss.  Ahhh, but ask an opinion about the brides choice of gowns and the conversation would continue for hours.

Have we become so shallow that we just pay lip service to real issues?  I hear politicians (and others) saying that “We are praying for…..”  I would like to point out that prayer without action is nothing but a wish list.  I prayed for years that I would lose 100 pounds. Unfortunately, prayers over chicken wings and beer are not often answered.  People can pray for the victims of gun violence and suicide, but if they want prayers to be answered action must be taken.

Instead of focusing on how hard the wedding designer worked the night before, maybe we could discuss some real issues.  Imagine if the same amount of time was actually spent debating the real problems in this country like health care, the opiate crisis, immigration, pricing of Medicare drugs, race relations, education, mental health and a host of people issues far more pressing than the fluff that is covered.

Maybe, if all of us spent more time investigating who is paying off our politicians (lobbyists) instead of the recipes for a wedding dinner, we might actually solve a few problems.

This is more than a rant.  When I see a society (that’s us) showing our children that fantasy and appearances are more important than acting as a community, that is a worry.