NORMALCY IS BACK…

Shopping in New Orleans this past weekend, I started to take notice of the attitudes and mannerisms of the citizens and tourists. Everyone was shopping, happy, as people with money could be, uninterested in anything but a sale. As I proceeded to other parts of town, I noticed other interesting eye candy and ear droplets. Gas is down nearly 29 cents since September 7, averaging $1.24 per gallon…Analysts say the stocks will rise this week, and there will be a boost in the beginning of the year…Yankees and Mariners to duke it out in Game 7…”Who dat gon’ beat dem Saints? Not the Jets”…and so on, and so on…
It seemed only last week tragedy struck.
Heck, it was only last week that people stopped being nice and the New York mayoral race started heating up with personal attacks. Since, Mayor Rudolph Guiliani has dropped out of the race, candidates can’t use the old “got a chick on the side” tactic, so they are digging deep. Forget the lack of experience issue! Frontrunners Mike Bloomberg (R) and Mark Green (D) are accusing each other of everything ranging from alleged sexual harassment to playing the race card. Yep, normalcy is back folks!
Patriotism is gone, capitalism is back! CNBC and CNN has “America Strikes Back”…Fox News has “War on Terror.” Although the war campaign is all too important, news stations and programs everywhere are capitalizing off attractive titles to lure viewers. They realize that new headlines are needed to catch viewers’ attention in order to by-line to their war stories. You see, war is depressing, so they gain ratings by giving us the goods on the fun stuff, grab our attention, and they go back to the “Fight for Democracy.”
You see, I know the public looks at members of the media as schizophrenic. But we have to be. There are fine lines between patriotism, criticism, and capitalism; and journalists cross every one. We have to. Sometimes, I have to cross the line of cynicism. Just recently, I stated that we needed to move on, now I am saying that we need to hold on; or maybe I meant we just need not to forget. See what I mean?
The Yankees lost to the Randy “The Unit” Johnson and the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 7 of the World Series. Maybe they had the tragedy on their minds. Ethiopian Tesfaye Jifar broke the NYC Marathon men’s record by 25 seconds. Back at home, the fact that Baton Rouge has had four murders over the past weekend has captured our headlines. Hurricane Michelle has grabbed a few headers also.
It is not that some of our attention spans are equivalent to that of a gnat; it is not that we are losing our patriotism or interest in the “War for Freedom”; it is just that we are focusing our attention on other important events.
Jags shake FAMU’s rattles!!! There’s a beauty. I almost forgot about the war. LSU BEATS CRIMSON TIDE!!!
The Saints lost. Yep, normalcy has returned. And That’s The Way I See It.