Dr. Sobel’s review of the many serious problems besetting our nation gave me some hope that out there more will speak up about the need to find solutions.
Several times, I have felt that empathy and fairness are too rare. I have often despaired, but something makes me persist.
The damage to our nation’s culture is wide and deep. Progressives are out there and we must continue to speak up.
Sometimes I try to console myself by saying that when things get bad enough, the people will respond. Well, things are really bad enough, and I hope that we will decide that “….we won’t take it anymore…”
Recently, a temporary setback limited my activities and I spent too much time watching television. I was thoroughly dismayed by my unscientific observations of what the American public is being fed.
As I clicked through the hundreds of offerings, I found that too many programs dealt in violence, too much meaningless trivial conversation, excessive attention to the doings of celebrities, selling of useless objects, exaggerated claims of the effectiveness of potions.
Then there were the distortions in the corporate advertising, praising their protection of our environment after abusing it to develop sources of fossil fuels. And how about the ads from pharmaceutical companies, touting the effectiveness of their new medications, complete with frightening side effects, urging us to ask our physicians to prescribe them.
But, worst of all, is the failure of our supposedly responsible mainstream media to deal fairly with the pros and cons of events and the statements of poorly informed politicians.
Too many, afraid of losing sponsors, dwell endlessly on claims of mistakes instead of providing a fair picture of actual reasons and facts. The failure to ask probing questions is deeply frustrating.
Of course, we have PBS, but consider the too pervasive avalanche of mediocrity.
The challenge is there. Can protest, truth telling and a thoughtful overhaul of our educational system get our attention before our country suffers any more abuse?
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park
