Mislead By The Media

Opening:

The year is 2010, The great product of the last 10 years has been waste. Now there is so much of it the real money is being made by the garbage barons. They make the garbage go away and get plenty of money for it and its not just junk, its toxic.

Not only do we drink bottle water but our homes are equipped with air purification systems with special filters. You can’t just hop in your car and get away from it all for one thing where is there to go and the other is a tank a gas will cost you about $150.00. Air is so bad you can only drive 3 days a week, a different colored license plates tells you when its your turn to drive.

The city is no longer a cultural center but a war zone. School buses carry armed guards and home security has become home defense, every thing the media warned us about has come to pass.

That is Vancouver in another 10 years.

Body:

Wrong. Beware of how we are being programmed by the media. 100 years of predominately bad news has caused us to think wrong. Life would be quite different if it just so happened bad news never sold, nobody wanted to hear it and over the past 100 years most of what we heard was good news about our planet, society and people in general.

Maybe it would sound like this, the year is 2010. We have learned from our mistakes and made good decisions. We don’t simply recycle but we replenish. Corporate America has been transformed to meet our needs in a profound way.

The city is no longer a heartless void but a community of neighbors. Most of us work at home and we are closer to our families. Electronic Technology has served us well, freeing time giving us more time for leisure. Government is back to its roots and provides true service. Quality is important not only in the things we make but in the things we do. The future is bright and people are happy.

Point 1
One of the biggest problems is news is out of context. You bet! Media is king at taking things out of context and it is sure to mislead you. Look how dangerous out of context can be?

It is time to elect the world leader, and your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:

Candidate A, Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B, He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C, He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn't had any extramarital affairs.

In this context it is obvious we would choose candidate C?

Surprise, surprise!
Candidate A,  is Franklin D. Roosevelt
Candidate B, is Winston Churchill
Candidate C, is Adolph Hitler

Point 2
We have to start to read again, but we need to read with our minds and hearts. I loved this article in the November Toast Master there was an article "What does it mean to be well read" Well read, signifies intelligent, wise, something we all would like. The article talked about reading material that challenges our minds. Most of our reading is informational reading. Newspapers, magazines, flyers, etc. which unfortunately does not require us to do much thinking. We read the mass media print like we ingest fast food which gives us little to know nutritional value. The article said quote "if we read with our hearts and minds disconnected we can become highly informed, very ignorant people" end quote.

The article quoted George Bernard Shaw saying "News papers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of a civilization"

Point 3
I for one am greatly concerned about how media programs a negative mind set. Too many are buying into that first scenario I talked about. Its the sense of hopelessness that bothers me. We have to have hope for our children's sake. If they don’t see a bright future they won’t try and the truth is the future is bright. I could speak for 4 hr.. on the positive things but let me share a few high lights from a couple of books. This book which I recommend everybody read. "Is progress speeding up" by Sir John Templeton Sub title "Our multiplying multiple Blessings"

Food:
- As recently as 1940 one farmer produced enough food for a dozen people, now a single worker produces enough for 80 people. This translates into the worlds population consuming 20% more then fifty years ago with developing nations eating an average of 2600 calories per/day.

Health & Life Expectancy:
- 50% of all medical knowledge has been developed in the past decade.
- The US spends 15.9 billion on medical research, 5300 times the 1940 level
- The US death rate has dropped 40% in the last 2 decades.

Political Freedom:
- Of the worlds 192 sovereign states fully 93% (179) of them elect their own legislators.
- Democracies rarely wage war against one another and political freedom is increasing dramatically around the globe.

Environment:
- American pollution levels are down to 1/3 rd the level they were that existed on the first Earth Day in 1970.
- Recycling rose from 3% to 22% from 1988 to 1993 (5 years)

Getting along:
- Military spending is down $935 billion between 1987 and 1994
- Many countries spend more on health and education than on military.

Spiritual:
- Religious contributions is at its highest exceeding $60 billion in the US alone.
- In 1990 overall sports attendance was 388 million while religious services exceeded 5 billion.

Talk about other positive change, crime rates have been dropping over the past decade. In this book, "The Soul of Politics" talk about transformation at gang level.

Page 21 Quote "Why now, I don’t know man we just woke up", the young gang members spoke of their need for the community to reach out to them. "We need spiritual power". There taking responsibility, these gang leaders planned a Summit meeting where they were to introduce a national truce and redirect their energies toward personal transformation and economic development. Page 23.

Turn off the TV set for a year or 2. These facts don’t even consider the huge leaps in working conditions, education, social & economic freedom, etc., etc., etc.

Closing:
I close with this statement. The bottom line is in spite of the negative reports you hear people are, in fact better fed, better clothed, better housed and better educated than ever before in human history. There is hope, get excited for your children because the Future’s so bright you will have to wear shades.