First Things First

Bless the beasts and the children
for in this world they have no voice
--Bless the Beasts and the Children,
The Carpenters
__________________

USA Today is always good for a glimpse into what the average American finds interesting.

Yesterday front and center it was pirates -- always a good topic (Killings Escalate Piracy Crisis). It seems two wealthy people and two friends were killed aboard their 65-foot custom made sloop by pirates as they blithely navigated through known treacherous territory as they romped their way across the world enjoying fair seas and spreading the word of their Christian God via distribution of bibles and occasional sermons.

Meanwhile, buried at the bottom of Page 5D was the story, "Children are Coming to School Hungry", about kids who, well, waited out the clock til lunch when they could fill their empty bellies. Said Stacey Frakes who taught middle school in Madison Co., Florida (neighboring county to Tallahassee), hungry children would lay their heads on their tables and "almost cry":

She says hungry students "couldn't focus at all. All they could think about was wanting food. They would ask, 'What time is lunch? Is it lunchtime yet?' "

It's hard to teach children when "they are thinking about their next good meal," Frakes says.

Pages 5A and 7A had something about the protests in Cairo and Libya, as that becomes background or foreground chatter like the U.S. wars, as sensational news like pirates dwindles or arises.

I don't know about you, but my concern is how to fix the manifold problems in my country. Proselytizing globetrotters don't mean a whit to me; if they volunteered at home to ameliorate some actual problem I'd give them a nod, but not for going out out converting and cavorting. The political goings on elsewhere are also not primary to my well-being, as they are not for most people.

Ah, but pirates, matey -- now there's something to fill a lunch hour's chatter. Exotic and much more interesting than the grotty little tales of woe of our downtrodden. Except when you realize that the pirates were once the grotty little hungry downtrodden of their own countries.

There is a repetition here.