The late, great Rabbi Friedman

said at one of his conferences on

Family Systems Theory back in the

90’s, that the media is geared, designed

and oriented to scare the wits out of

the public so that the public would

get hooked on fear and keep watch-

ing, listening, reading.  They knew

our drug. He ended by saying,

with a smile on his face, that when

we returned to our hotel rooms, we

should watch the evening news, local,

state and national, to see if he was right.

And then he just chuckled. Wow! It is

really scary out there we realized. 

The next day, he suggested we stop

watching the news if we wanted to

save our lives, marriages and families.

That was pretty scary, too. And so,

for all the bad stuff that somehow

we were aware was happening out

there between the late 90’s and now

of which you don’t need a long litany

at this particular moment because we

all know intuitively about wars, pest-

ilence, droughts and terrorist attacks

just to mention a few calamities, we

concentrated on how well everything

in our world works – the toilet keeps

flushing, the furnace warms, the air con-

ditioner cools, the dish washer cleans

dishes, the clothes washer washes our

clothes, the hot water heater doesn’t

leak from the rubber hoses into the

condo below, the lights go on and off,

the car starts most of the time and air-

planes make it to their destinations

most often safely, but we don’t need

the news to tell us that like our cars

which get into a lot of accidents to no

one’s surprise.  Then, assuming life

was good and safe, after all, we suc-

cumbed, watched the evening news

and realized our worst fears, for

really real.  We had gone to Target

after Thanksgiving and before Christ-

mas and used our debit card – massive

fraud. Yikes! Destitution here we come

and just as Congress is cutting back

food stamps as we were told by smiling,

buxomy, blond women on Fox News,

which to be honest, sort of helped digest

the bad news. Then I thought, just like car

commercials, they found another old way

to keep us watching – bad news from blonds,

what a winning combo! “Honey, could I

have another bourbon straight up, three

fingers while it lasts?”