Ramble On

During my nighttime rendezvous with the cable news channels a few days ago I noticed a story repeating about a young girl who got into a violent argument with her school bus driver that climaxed with the bus driver’s daughter joining the melee. I rode the bus as a youngster, and saw some things that make this look like…well, child’s play. So, why is it on the news?

The story was the video. It’s not everyday you see a cute teenage girl in complete hysterics, (maybe every other day, but not every day) and this made for effective television. Viewers flock to rubberneck at this type of incident. It is one of the reasons I enjoy the television program Intervention. The people’s lives are so different than mine that I can’t help but gawk.

So, why does the documentary about the exploited single mother in Bangladesh working in a factory for pennies an hour to feed her family not get the same ratings? The images are just as extreme, but her life isn’t that different than mine. She gets up and goes to work. I get up and go to work. She comes home and cooks dinner. I come home and watch my wife cook dinner. I’m sure you get the picture. Actually, it was an interesting documentary. They ended up bringing her to the U.S. and showing her the garments she made being sold in Walmart for several times the price it cost for her labor. She then returned to Bangladesh and funded by the filmmakers, founded some kind of labor union I think.

The point being:

People are addicted to sensory stimulus.
Everyone is attracted to things that are extraordinary.
We are really all the same, and struggle in the same existence.
This woman and her kids would have starved years ago if Sam Walton hadn’t built stores to make a couple bucks for his family.
I should help my wife make dinner more often.