Breeder scratches head and wonders if he's insane

Was watching the world news the other night with a friend of mine who is very proud to be a dad. He's nice though, and a good friend, so I put up with his obsession with his sons occasionally leaking out into normal conversation. Don't think he's a softie though -- he was a high-ranking British Army officer who was trained at Sandhurst, the most elite military school in Europe and possibly the world.

They showed some clips of all the carnage going on in Gaza -- the standard-issue ugly shots of bombed-out concrete buildings followed by uglier shots of crying children, followed by ugly shots of shrapnel laying in the streets, followed by uglier shots of screaming child with dust on his face. The usual peek-a-boo game that news editors do, inserting footage of wailing brats every third clip to make viewers think it's all somehow chronological -- that these kids are reacting to the bombed building when in fact they might have been crying over a sandwich they dropped or something. No really, that's how news editing works and it's not considered 'dishonest'. Anyways...

James: Oh god that's awful. Those kids. I see them and I think they're my two boys.

Ame: You're kidding.

James: No, no. Sometimes I see a news story and I'm on the verge of tears when I see all these crying children.

(After a pause)
Ame: Do you know how crazy that sounds?

James: (defensively) What?

Ame: They're playing you, James. The media. And you're letting them. It's called 'turning up the heat' and they do it all the time in print and television news. They juxtapose footage or imagery of crying children next to bomb damage or broken stuff or whatever, even if the shots are nothing directly to do with each other, to try to get that exact response from you.

James: Well....

Ame: Most editors are parents too, and they're hoping you'll react like that and become more emotional about the story if you do that wierd thing parents do of mistaking pictures of injured children as their own children.

James: Well I don't know about that.

Ame: It turns up the heat, it tugs on parents' heartstrings and makes them feel like they're personally part of the story when frankly they are not.

(the sound of James thinking)

Ame: It doesn't affect me like that because I'm not a parent. So I'm objective and I don't ration my pity. I don't care what's the age of the individual standing amidst the ruins of their house, I feel sorry for all of them quite equally.

(the sound of James thinking)

Ame: Don't worry, the media pulls that stunt on all parents.

(the sound of James thinking)

Ame: Your kids aren't in Gaza, James.

James: I know, I know.

- - - - - - - -
"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly

The media plays the same game with natural disasters, housefires, chemical spills on desert highways, starving children in impoverished countries, cancer stricken or terminally ill children of whatever the charity de jour may be, and in fact, ANY kiddie shot is a good shot, as far as the media goes. I have always found it difficult to believe that the same, big brown eyed little girl with the distended belly and the flys swarming about her head has been that same size and age for the past 20 years or so as featured on the CCF (Christian Childrens Fund) commercials. Not EVERY child cancer patient is balded by his treatment or forced into a wheel chair, but that's always the ones that they show on the St. Jude's Childrens' Hospital infomercials. Many times, children were no where NEAR any given tragedy, but they either show pictures of them wailing anyway, or if they can't get away with that then they will mention how kyds were almost there that day or how kyds had planned on being there next March for a class picnic, or how some kyds had just left the scene (a week prior) before the plane crashed into the Strip club, or wherever.


I don't understand how people, parents or not, can look at a tragic situation and actually imagine that it's them or their family who is in the middle of it when it is physically impossible. I can understand the empathy, but when I hear of a friends' mother dying I do not IMMEDIATELY think, "That could be MY mother", instead I am trying to comfort her for her loss or do what I can to help out. When I hear of someone's child getting cancer, I don't IMMEDIATELY think, "I am so glad it's not MY niece or nephew". Instead, I am feeling compassionate toward them and their kyds. When people have kyds, a deep rooted level of selfishness about their own feelings emerges and quite frankly, I think it's a rather ugly trait and NOTHING to be proud about, like they seem to feel. "Look at me! I love MY kyds so so so so much, that I imagine the worst (that of course being whatever it is actually happened to THEIR kyds) when I hear of a tragedy!". I think it's selfish behavior disguised as caring or empathy toward others' tragedies. Funny though how the CF are the selfish ones.

Remember- it's only significant if a child is involved! This includes WAR.