Bread and Circuses

Usually whenever I wish to switch channels on the Television (And I admit to watching too much television) I move from channel to channel, rather than just punch in the number of the new channel I’m looking for. Anyway, that’s how I stumbled upon The Maury Povich Show and two brothers who were trying to figure out if they were the father of the little boy that one of them had been raising for two years. Of course it turned out that neither was the father and wasn’t the mother surprised! And I thought, are there really that many mothers in New York who don’t know who their baby daddy is? Enough to fill 250 shows a year for how many years now? And what is the matter with Maury Povich and how much did he get for his pride and his self respect on E-bay?

And so I switched the channel again and there was a New Jersey man holding another man at gunpoint and all of this was calmly being filmed by a network film crew while no one intervened. Then all was right with the world because this was no reality murder but rather an episode of Repo Games, where a repo-man comes to take your car away but before he does he asks you 5 questions and if you answer 3 correctly, you get to keep your car free and clear! So the man put his gun down, calmly answered all of the questions incorrectly and then went back into his house without shooting anyone…of course…that’s real.

And then came the commercials and a trailer for the next show to be featured later in the day…and that’s when I heard the words that left me shaking my head and wondering why I ever thought that television would provide a medium that would someday help the world become more educated, tolerant and sophisticated. The words came from a woman who was the guest on another reality show called Ink Master and here’s what she said… “I’m getting a phoenix shooting fire out of my Vagina!” Say what? And you want to be on TV? And you are?

And all of these shows are real aren’t they? Because after all it’s called reality TV isn’t it? And everything on TV these days is the truth. After all they say it is and repeat it over and over and over but…Is any of it? Anywhere?

And of all the TV shows Mr Romney wants to cut from television, should he be elected president, he chooses Sesame Street and the entire PBS lineup? And he smiles at America and the world and is proud of himself for saying it. I’m sorry Big Bird. I love ya but you have to go. America can’t pay for your nonsense anymore. It just costs too much and government has no place being involved with public television. Let the private sector handle it. The private sector knows best. And you too Jim Lehrer…I like you too but we have the fair and balanced Fox news channel so once again private enterprise proves their superiority over anything the government can provide.

And I think…How did we invent this wonderful, magical, technological marvel whereby we can beam sounds and pictures instantaneously from one place to another and to billions of people around the world and this is the best that we can do with it? This is the only thing that we can do with it? Entertain one another? Laugh at people who don’t pay their bills, can’t remember who procreated their children, hold others at gunpoint and want flames to shoot from their vaginas? And on 300 different channels?  And those could easily be stories that you see reported on the so called legitimate NEWS too, for crying out loud.

Where’s the instruction? Where’s the information? Where are the arts, technology and creativity that distinguish human kind from the other creatures of our planet? Where’s the humanity?

If it’s anywhere, it’s on PBS. It’s brought to you and in part made possible by our government who at least still has one feeble grip left on beaming some sanity and sense into the world.

Please America, whiles there’s still time, do not let the few remaining particles of intelligence that can escape our planet and reach out into the universe as a beacon of evidence of life well lived perish from the face of the Earth!

Vote for Big Bird! Vote for truth, justice and public television. If you don’t, and you leave it up to the private sector then where will you turn to on your dial for any of those things?

Please don’t leave us with just Honey Boo Boo and…bread…and circuses.