Commentary is an excellent outlet for rants, political party sabotage, and all around nastiness. This section of The Phillipian thrives on the controversy it provides in 800-word, well-punctuated articles. If the Phillipian were CNN.com’s front page, Commentary would be an angry hybrid of the U.S, the world, and politics. Sports would be sports; news would be the factual account of current events. Features is practically boundless, and can be just as informative as any other section. Living Arts could probably be passed as entertainment. But what about the travel link on CNN? How about it’s health and science offerings? What honest fulfillment is to be gained by reading whatever the World page is blaring headlines and pictures of, namely, death, destruction, and destitution. Why not read the article under travel entitled: “Georgia: Butterfly center spreads new wings?” Or how about the one called, “Indiana Museum tells the story of windmills?” Is this to remain the shunned section of the news? People are left ignorant on the positive changes effected in the world today, because they don’t place butterflies or windmills as a priority next to whichever country is rummaging through their nukes this week. Turning instead to BBC’s pictures of the day, one would usually find cottages in the country side, piled under snow or blossoming with flowers. On Monday the first picture in the slideshow was not the one of the pope’s body that was plastered over the main page of every news website, but of a sumo wrestling exhibition. Who new they even existed? While some of the images were of more typical devastated scenes, with rubble and a lone figure surveying the damage, mixed in was a close up of a Michael Jackson impersonator. This was eclectic. There was a chef looking at the place setting he had used to serve Pope John Paul II and had subsequently framed. No picture of the pope, but this was his silverware. These were followed by a woman displaying a hand adorned with a replica of Camilla Parker Bowles’ engagement ring, apparently all the rage in U.K. department stores. Can anyone remember the last time something in the news actually made them laugh? A happy laugh, that is, not a derisive giggle over the woman on the local channel claiming to have seen the Virgin Mary in her fruit loops. If there is never any pleasure to be derived from reading the front page of a daily paper, then why do we obsess over it so? All those incredible things done by people we’ll never meet, in places that we may never visit, why do they just seem to matter? As if the other stresses and tensions of any given day weren’t enough, watching some overly made up anchorwoman discuss how gun violence has escalated in a nearby city through pursed lips is considered a relaxing evening activity. How can this be allowed to continue? It is no wonder people don’t live longer; the stress that can easily be attributed to these sources is omnipotent. What are the reprecussions of a died of constant politics and world affairs? Is there any personal benefit? It need no longer be lame or taboo to talk about something that is just plain good. Continuing to allow “Fossil found of termite eating mammal,” to fall to the wayside, is doing a great disservice to the caliber of education one seeks from their news.
