This reminds me of something David Letterman said about police and firefighters, shortly after 9/11...

"The police and firefighters go out there everyday and put themselves into harms way to keep us safe. They've been called "New York's Finest" and "New York's Bravest". And before this happened, did that really mean anything to us? Well, hopefully. But probably not. But it sure means a whole lot now doesn't it."

 

This really hits hard with me, with myself and my father being volunteer firefighters in our small town, much like Webster. Just because you're in a small town doesn't mean doing this job is safe. This is one of the most tragic things I have read about. The past 2 weeks have been very tragic, between the Sandy Hook shooting, a local police officer being shot a few towns over from me recently, and now this. I really don't know how much more depression I can take.

 

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your own sanity's sake, is to avoid channels like CNN and FoxNews. I firmly believe the human brain/body wasn't meant to handle the stress of taking on the entire world's problems all at the same time.

 

Sometimes it's so hard to avoid this stuff, most of the events that have happened recently have been very local, and my fire dept would take part in memorial services. And I come home last night to an attempted burglary down the block from me. I can't take it anymore.

 

That's perfectly understandable. I'm not saying people shouldn't care. Of course we should care. And like you said, most of the stuff lately has been somewhat local to you. All I'm saying is sometimes when all of the entire globe's problems are getting too much for you to handle, you need to turn off the news for your own sanity's sake. Take a break from all the pain and suffering for a bit. Before you have a mental breakdown of your own.

Not you specifically. I'm talking people in general.

Many times for my own sanity, I'll stick with watching the evening news from a local tv station. Get the world news from that. They do tell you of the major events of the day from all over the world. Enough for people to handle and still be able to sleep at night.

I find that channels like CNN tend to exploit people's pain and suffering, and turn it into an entertainment show complete with commercials. Making a profit from victim's suffering.

Don't get me wrong, I will turn on CNN if there is a live event happening at the time.

I don't know if I'm really explaining myself properly. Hopefully you get my point. I do care about what's happening in the world.

 

This is very sad. We had a tragedy similar to that about 20 years ago but I still remember everything about that day. 2 brothers were having a dispute and called the police but then ambushed them from 2 separate locations killing 2 officers.

 

I remember that Lou. With my proximity to Detroit, I usually watch the 5:00pm news on channel 7. I remember when there was a problem of people shooting at ambulances, using them as moving targets many years ago. It came to mind when I first heard about the guy shooting at the firemen.

 

Yea, I know exactly what you mean. It seems that there are only tragedies on the news now, there is nothing positive on there anymore. That's why I don't watch the news anymore, and instead watch some Top Gear UK. That always gets my mind off any negative news I see :P