A Healthy, Happy Life in Spite of Media Hype

It is sad how we respond to media-generated hype and hysteria.

The 24 x 7 news void demands to be filled, and by golly, they do indeed fill it. 

Why a police chase ending in a rollover blocking the 405 south of Los Angeles is pertinent, we don’t know. But we are compelled to watch the gripping video. Ask a hard question – is the news you watch mostly useful, or is it mostly entertainment? 

Remember that the networks and cable news outlets are driven by a chase for revenue. The news arms of the majors (ABC, CBS, NBC) and the cable networks – CNN, MSNBC, Fox News – all are competing to keep your eyes glued to their particular screen.  The stories they feature are not primarily designed to make you a better citizen, or to keep you safe, but rather to maximize their advertising revenue. 

Take, for example, the stereotypical “stranger-danger” child kidnapping. As a media maven, one would think that these events have gone through the roof. Children are no longer permitted to walk to school or play alone because of such dangers. A child kidnapping in far-off Atlanta or Houston is emblazoned on our screens, not to help recover the child, but as a ploy to keep you watching the commercials.

To the contrary, a recent Department of Justice bulletin reports that such child kidnappings have not increased. The study found that approximately 105 child kidnappings occurred nationwide in 2011, about the same as in 1997. And more importantly, the number of deaths resulting from such events fell dramatically, from 40 percent to 8 percent. (The authors of the study credit technology – cell phones, GPS, security cameras – for making kids easier to recover). Bottom line – kids are safer now than ever.

This one example gives us some guidance – as a citizen, as a voter, as a parent, our best defense is to be well armed with relevant information. Our government does a great job of gathering and publishing statistics, and it is free for you to access.

For instance, here are the leading causes of death in the United States for 2014 from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

A quick glance at the big top four should convince you that diet and exercise and a healthy lifestyle should be your highest priority. 

Next is to take care to avoid accidents (unintentional falls being a significant portion of them).

Not much can be done yet to avoid Alzheimer’s disease although general good health, diet, and exercise are thought to help, along with maintaining strong social interactions.

Numbers seven through nine again speak to health, nutrition, and lifestyle.

Drug overdose and suicide are both very sad causes of death, perhaps interrelated. All we can do there is to support our loved ones and call for increased funding for rehabilitation and mental health programs. 

Finally to the most dangerous form of transportation known to man – our cars. Help is on the horizon with autonomous (self-driving) cars promising to greatly increase safety. In the meantime, you can take care to buckle up and don't drive under the influence (one third of motor vehicle fatalities involve alcohol-impaired drivers).

Not on the list but top of mind recently is homicide. The death rate for all homicides is 5.1 per 100,000 people. (Interestingly, that rate has declined over 50% from a high of 10.4 in 1980). Death by firearm is a fraction of that, 3.5 per 100,000. And unless you live in a drug-infested urban enclave, your odds of meeting this particular fate are exceedingly low.

Here are a few observations that may contribute to the length and quality of your life. First, shut off the cable news – it is not serving your best interests. Read your local newspaper – what is going on around you is far more important. And for goodness sake, put down that cheeseburger and go for a hike once in a while. 

The statistics demand it.

The Immigrant's Lament

 

"Waiting On Shore," Sligo, Ireland

“Lost at Sea, Lost at Sea

  Or in the Evening Tide

  We Loved You, We Miss You

  May God With You Abide.”

These words are engraved on a plaque adorning a bronze statue on the headlands of Rosses Point, Sligo, Republic of Ireland. The “Waiting On Shore” sculpture depicts a young woman, arms outstretched, perhaps in prayer, skirts blown back by a stiff sea breeze. The statue commemorates those who watch and wait for the return of loved ones from an often furious sea, and mourn those who do not.

Perhaps, unwittingly, a perfect counterpoint to another statue, 2,858 miles to the west. The “Man at the Wheel” statue in Gloucester, Massachusetts, memorializes the hundreds of fishermen who have lost their lives in the stormy Atlantic while plying Gloucester’s thriving fishing trade. A rough, oilskin-clad fisherman is poised grasping a ship’s wheel with tensed muscles, fighting swells and breakers, struggling  to avoid dangerous rocks.

It is uncanny that these two statues, one on the northwest coast of Ireland, the other on the northeast coast of America, seem to be facing one another across a steely grey ocean. One fighting for survival, the other hoping against hope.

But America and Ireland have many connections. According to the website UShistory.org, “In the middle half of the nineteenth century, more than one-half of the population of Ireland emigrated to the United States.” To put that in perspective, “From 1820 to 1870, over seven and a half million immigrants came to the United States — more than the entire population of the country in 1810. Nearly all of them came from northern and western Europe — about a third from Ireland and almost a third from Germany.”

Immigrants in the nineteenth century from northern and western Europe built the American infrastructure. Canals, bridges, railroads – the hard labor was largely supplied by these immigrants. It is almost a given that the cops in Boston and New York were mostly Irish.

But this was not accomplished without struggle. The mythos of “Irish Need Not Apply” is not myth at all, but true. Posters advertising professional jobs in the nineteenth and early twentieth century did indeed disclaim that Irish were not welcome to apply.

This prejudice, fear-based, was slowly overcome, and Irish immigrants began to contribute to all aspects of American commerce, academia, and politics. Culminating, perhaps, with the 35^th president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

It is not a stretch to venture that any sizable group of immigrants will initially be viewed with fear, but will eventually acclimate, assimilate, and contribute mightily. Italians, Germans, and Asians are just a few examples, with many other immigrant populations in the milieu.

The opposite may well be true, that is, that failure to assimilate will result in failure to flourish. America has a tangible culture based on individual liberty, personal responsibility, and  a strong work ethic. These cultural values are a recipe for nearly guaranteed success. Those who do not embrace these values as their own are not likely to share in the American dream.

But the Irish did, and they succeeded. Handsomely.

According to the Washington Post, over 34.5 million Americans claim Irish heritage. “That number is, incidentally, seven times larger than the population of Ireland itself (4.68 million).”

Which explains why Ireland is a wildly popular destination for Americans investigating their ancestry.

Which reveals why we, in the interest of my half-Irish wife, are in Sligo, contemplating the mournful beauty of “Waiting On Shore.”  And contemplating the connections to America, as the bronze beauty gazes across the sea to her counterpart in Gloucester.

It is a small world indeed.