September 24, 2016

Yes this is what we used to call an editorial. I kind of miss that opening statement qualifying that the following was an editorial and that it did not reflect the point of view of the network or the show sponsors. Remember those days? You first had the news, straightforward facts about what was happening around me. The news was structured: International, national, local, sports, and weather. Then almost as if it was a different show somebody else came on the news. Sometimes it was the news anchor, or other such individual and they gave you an interpretation of the facts or their opinion on a particular topic and what it should mean to you. I remember those editorials were polite opinions and not too much of a departure from the facts that had been recently presented.

We no longer have that reliable news at 6 or 11pm. What we have today are nothing but grossly biased broadcasts of something that might have once been a news story until it was dropped in the laps of often frustrated political hacks that don’t even attempt to veil their own bias and attempt to pass off the garbage they espouse as genuine news. It’s so bad that I find myself needing to listen and read from “news” networks from both ends of the political spectrum (and sometimes international) in order to collect enough factual pieces of information in order to come up with what is close to the truth.

Now I will tell you that I am a card-carrying member of the Republican Party. This of course does not mean that I am a rich, bigoted, bible carrying, machine gun wielding, redneck. As I call it out in the subtitle, “Coming at you straight from the middle of the road” I am a fiscally conservative, socially liberal, educated, veteran, pro gun, pro choice, willing to listen, middle of the road Republican. I believe that my liberal friends are very well intentioned but more often than not lost when it comes to actual execution. They press for issues that make them feel good about themselves but often forget about the disasters that trail behind the good intentions they legislate. On the other hand I shake my head in frustration when some of my extremely “right minded” friends talk about what God intended. I do believe that your faith, race, education, and sexual orientation have nothing to do with what kind of jackass you can be. Equal opportunity in its purest form.

With all that said I will now begin to espouse my interpretation of the news and society as a whole. My bias is that I find myself in the ever-shrinking middle. We here in the middle are not afraid of hard work or reaping the rewards of our endeavors. We do not fear change but we do look at it with skepticism and prefer to understand it before jumping off the proverbial bridge. We listen to others but we speak our own mind. We can be people of faith but never be confused with zealots. We take care of those that are in need but we don’t make them our dependents. We respect for our elders and those that have served our country. It’s a little box we live in but it is ours to keep. Here we are, it’s a straight up editorial, and I am “coming at you straight from the middle of the road”.