Maybe I’m Out of Touch

I was going to meet a friend for coffee yesterday. But when I called him, he said that he couldn’t because he was subpoenaed by the FBI to give a deposition in the Devlin case.

“Devlin case?” I asked innocently. You see, I stopped watching TV (as discussed here), I don’t subscribe to the paper, and I don’t work in an office where I’d hear gossip or listen to drive-time news.

My friend proceeded to ask me if I’d heard that they’d landed a man on the moon, and other similar ludicrous media comparisons.

(I had a meeting later that day with a man who doesn’t believe in the moon landing, but that’s beside the point.)

As near as I can tell from my subsequent reading, this is a case about a couple of kidnappings over the years that police have recently and accidentally solved. Good human interest stuff, but is this really big news? Does following this case in local, national, or even international news somehow help protect our freedoms, or even our standard of living? The total number of people directly involved by Devlin over the years is significantly less than the weekly body count in Iraq, and that’s the official, died-in-the-field American service-persons count. I’m obviously not counting the subsequent dog pile of media and lawyers in the Devlin case.

I can see why the mainstream news is all over this case. It has much human drama: A monster, a survivor, crying families, a nominal hero, and many lawyers. But must I really be made to feel as though I am illiterate because I was unaware of this family drama?

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Dan Klarmann

A convoluted mind behind a curly face. A regular traveler, a science buff, and first generation American. Graying of hair, yet still verdant of mind. Lives in South St. Louis City. See his personal website for (too much) more.

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  1. Avatar of Cleptomanx
    Cleptomanx

    Actually, yes I believe that you should be raked over the coals just long enough to singe. You tend to like covering political and social subjects, yet the ones you don't notice are what? Just fluff and cannon fodder?

    Soldiers dying everyday in Iraq is definitely tragic. I wish we would just kick Bush to the curb and get those guys out already, but sad as it may be… those brave men and women enlisted for this. They decided to go into the armed forces which means there was always a possibility that they would die in hostile environments (or even on training missions in some occassions).

    On the other hand you have this guy who abducts kids and does who knows what with them (I'm sure all the details will come out eventually). I'm sure those kids never signed up for this. Don't you think that makes the plight of these children just slightly more important for at least 5 minutes.

    I'm sure when I turn on the TV tomorrow, I'll see another 4 deaths in Iraq and I'll clench my fist, blame Bush and move on to a cup of coffee. But, that's the sad state that the issue has now come to. You get to the point where no matter how tragic a continuing story continues to get, you've reached an emotional threshold a long time ago and can only watch and curse because you can't do a damn thing to change it. That's been proven over the last couple of years.

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