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gwynOne of the things about working for a news and opinion magazine is that you have to spend a lot of time paying attention to current events. I've had CNN on for the past four days nonstop. It is literally making me sick; I've found it hard to eat, I'm so upset. One person Wolf Blitzer talked to today just devastated me -- trapped in a hospital, not knowing if anyone even knows they're there, saying she just wanted her family to know she is all right... for now. Because maybe in a few days, she won't be. They are almost out of water. No food. She is alive, for now.
We spend a lot of time behind the scenes, trying to find people who can write stories on short notice, who aren't already writing for another news organization. Toss around ideas, topics for discussion. It's gruesome and hard, and you get to be jokey about stuff that's not funny because otherwise you will go mad from the frustration. We have to be relatively impartial. Do you know how hard it is to have a balanced outlook when you want to kill the people in power in this country? To have to listen to their bald-faced lies, and then write calmly about it (or edit calmly, in my case)? I hear this woman on my TV and am reading and trying to be fair... and I can't.
But finally, good ol' Wolf said it. I never watch CNN if I can help it, so I lost touch with Wolf in the last Gulf War, but I loved him for this today. They're making all this noise about how hard it is to get Congress back to Capitol Hill because they're scattered all over the country and the world. And he pointed out that when it came to vote on whether to force Terri Schiavo to have a feeding tube, they all ran back to the Hill by that Sunday night. Within a matter of two days. Now they've had almost a week, and they may or may not convene by tomorrow, who knows. I love people who poke at the hypocrites.
Is there anything worse than being helpless to help people? It was the worst thing about my sister's illness. Even when she was nearing death's door, she was so upset over being helpless herself to do anything more than send money for the tsunami victims. It's easy to give money. But it still leaves you feeling utterly helpless and worthless.
We spend a lot of time behind the scenes, trying to find people who can write stories on short notice, who aren't already writing for another news organization. Toss around ideas, topics for discussion. It's gruesome and hard, and you get to be jokey about stuff that's not funny because otherwise you will go mad from the frustration. We have to be relatively impartial. Do you know how hard it is to have a balanced outlook when you want to kill the people in power in this country? To have to listen to their bald-faced lies, and then write calmly about it (or edit calmly, in my case)? I hear this woman on my TV and am reading and trying to be fair... and I can't.
But finally, good ol' Wolf said it. I never watch CNN if I can help it, so I lost touch with Wolf in the last Gulf War, but I loved him for this today. They're making all this noise about how hard it is to get Congress back to Capitol Hill because they're scattered all over the country and the world. And he pointed out that when it came to vote on whether to force Terri Schiavo to have a feeding tube, they all ran back to the Hill by that Sunday night. Within a matter of two days. Now they've had almost a week, and they may or may not convene by tomorrow, who knows. I love people who poke at the hypocrites.
Is there anything worse than being helpless to help people? It was the worst thing about my sister's illness. Even when she was nearing death's door, she was so upset over being helpless herself to do anything more than send money for the tsunami victims. It's easy to give money. But it still leaves you feeling utterly helpless and worthless.
