JANUARY 18, 2023 – This morning I took a quick look at the latest “news”: arraignment of a Massachusetts man indicted on charger of killing his wife and moving the body; another shoot-’em-up in [fill in one (or several) of the 50 states]; compulsive liar accused of more lies and given Congressional committee assignments; another celebrity dies; Ukraine suffers more anguish; another shoot-’em-up, this time, a MAGA nut in New Mexico shoots up the homes of Democrats; after fizzling out in the playoffs, Vikings “look ahead” to next season; the weather.
After closing the laptop, I donned my ski garb and drove three minutes to “Little Switzerland.” From the radio en route I caught real news: the story behind the + 60% year-over-year increase in the price of eggs. During the mid-term campaign, the Republican’s blamed the increase on Democrats. In fairness, if the increase had occurred during the Trump Administration, the former president would’ve been tagged with it. Earlier this week, I heard that avian flu was to blame.
The real news on the subject went deeper. First, with a burgeoning middle class throughout the world, the demand for higher grade proteins—eggs, meat, fish—has greatly increased in recent years. Second, in the U.S. especially, we expect as much as we want, whenever we want it, at a low price—an unsustainable model of consumption and production. Third, the food industry is dominated by four enormous corporations with crushing influence over supply and pricing. Fourth, the foregoing factors have resulted in a production system with wide-ranging environmental impacts. Unmentioned was “Republican” or “Democrat.”
By the time a call interrupted the news piece, I realized how much there was to understand about the price of eggs—and how little I knew about the subject—or, for that matter, much of anything else that fuels heated opinion in the public square.
On the return from skiing, I heard the last of a BBC interview with a brave soul in Port-au-Prince. Born there but educated abroad and well traveled, the man had returned to the gang-ruled, failed state of Haiti to help make a positive difference in the lives of young people. Despite pleas by relatives in the U.S., this remarkable individual was committed to his mission in life—a life endangered by his mere presence in Haiti. Highly articulate, he described methodically the broken social, political and economic landscape of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
I was captivated by the story, recognizing that it was real news, however buried from view by other “news.” It took little reflection to connect this real news with similar stories in Venezuela, El Salvador and other countries whose poor, helpless and victims of violence stride northward to our southern border. With little reflective effort, I was reminded that last week’s immigration crisis (remember?) is tied directly to conditions in places that American border control hawks ignore.
What I conclude from today’s brief, random exposure to “news,” is that except by chance or conscious effort, I’ll rarely know the full story behind the real news. Yet . . . I vote in every election! (Go democracy!)
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© 2023 by Eric Nilsson
