Respect

Now that the National Enquirer deserves (someone, somewhere's) new respect for "stakeouts, paid informants and various sources" having exposed a politician's dalliance with a staff worker, what comes next? A literary prize? Attention from the public? Heavy increase in sales?

We've become a mass of punitive, small-minded, petty activity, this culture. Media successes skyrocket when the public is treated to squabbling, foul-mouthed, asinine behavior by featured 'guests' who attempt to best each other by exhibiting as much of their vacuous ignorance as possible.

What do we now respect? That is, what do we hold in high esteem, what is valuable to us?

Surely it cannot be knowledge, thoughtfulness, consideration. Nor does it appear that most of our fellow citizens have much more on their minds than the latest fashion or scandal, or where the next drug or quick 'high' can be procured.

Shallow, artificial functionality has come into its own. Marketing industries clamor toward banality, actually insulting normal intelligence with most commercials which are heaped non-stop in our laps daily. Any attempt to obtain daily news is met with this constant bombardment; rarely can we expect to view, on any TV station, an entire half-hour of uninterrupted information or entertainment.

And we wonder why so many people suffer panic attacks, anxiety? Why stress is steadily on the rise, why so many take prescription drugs daily to ward off a complete inability to function? Try sensory overload . . . consider constant noise, an urgent deluge of unintelligible nonsense.

So much for quiet dignity . . . for honest, aware communication. Sensationalism has arrived -- in all its mindless hunger. When we begin to see merit in, much less truly admire, publications which set out to annihilate others; when we feel the need to behave as judge and jury; when we relish decimating lives for our own entertainment -- the concepts of goodness and integrity have been lost in the shuffle.

Get into learning, loving life, generosity to others. During the human race's habitation of this planet, there's been enough killing. Let's live.