The tornado in Missouri is just a horrible event, no doubt about it.
The crazy weather in the world and the possible connection to a global warming crisis is on every thinking person's menu of concerns today.
Surely, we urge those with power and political platforms in America to move on clarifying what we can possibly do about future weather events.
We ask them to please present facts about whether global warming is a serious cause in weather catastrophes.
It seems peculiar, however, to my inquiring mind, that loops of extreme weather events and bizarre conditions are played, over and over, on television news. It is as if we are watching the same train wreck, dazed and mesmerized, and for what?
What is the point, I ask.
What does this footage do for us psychologically?
In a word, we are helpless and faced with the essence of being out-of-control.
Many Americans already face these feelings on a personal level, with their own financial losses, for example.
It is understandable that floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and tornadoes bring about urgent requests that the public send money to support those afflicted.
Naturally, we want to nourish our compassion and connection with others in or out of crisis.
Asking for money and help, however, for many people has become a big problem.
First, watching endless loops of disaster footage is a downer with no useful or redeeming purpose.
It is a distraction, and a negative one, taking away our focus on our own personal crises.
Whether we want to acknowledge this or not, many people are in seriously bad emotional or financial shape, and they are not suffering from weather disasters.
They need the time and ability to face and solve their own disasters.
Second, only the very wealthiest people in this country have what used to be asked for and referred to as "spare change".
Spare money does not exist for the middle class anymore.
To ask donations from them, when they themselves have zero financial sponsorship in this country, is unfair and even obnoxious.
Most importantly, the addition of a heap of overwhelm that distracts from many people's attention to their own lives and solving their personal challenges should really stop.
From what I hear, the worst that is happening to people is that their own thinking has been crowded out. This leaves their problems unsolved and in danger of worsening by neglect and lack of problem-solving.
Without omitting the news, we certainly could lessen the repetition of visual catastrophe loops.
Repetitive weather footage is not a cheap distraction.
It is very expensive "entertainment" that delivers helplessness and takes away our ability to think.