Another Day, Another Article

Do you recall one of my previous blogs called “Cycles”? If you haven’t read it, go read it! I don’t write these for the heck of it. Anyway, in the blog “Cycles”, I mention one of my favorite books, “Makes Me Wanna Holler” by Nathan McCall. There is a section in the book where the author mentions daily reading the newspaper and constantly seeing another person dying from some sort of violence. And he explained that the way it was being reported on, there was a desensitizing effect to the news of the violent deaths of black people. “Faceless people” was how he described them. Another day, another black person being killed. He stated that to many readers, this came across as the norm, and we just continued to read to the next article. We continue to flip the channels. We continue to swipe to the next post on social media. He then mentioned how those same people whose lives had been taken were somebody to someone. Their lives were significant in some way. The author mentioned that in his hometown, the same articles get posted, but he knows the names. He knew the people and was sensitive to the situation. Fast forward to today, and I see the same articles, posts, and TV news reports. I, too, have been affected by the desensitization to the traumatic events happening. The way it's getting reported is something I cannot directly control, but my reception and response are. I didn’t give much thought to the state of the school system until I became a parent, and when I became an employee of a school system. Now, when I see an article concerning changes, events, or legislation about the schools, it grabs my attention. Did the importance of the state of the school systems change? It did for me, but it was always important. I did not see how important it was until my life was directly impacted by it. I wasn’t paying attention to the rate of black men being incarcerated or being killed unless it was someone I knew. That was wrong of me; that was someone’s son, brother, father, or relative. Sometimes we don’t see ourselves in those news articles, but we are closer to these stories than we realize sometimes. I came across a story in my Google News Feed the other day, and it was reporting that there will be an increase in mental health crises in the 2025-26 school year. I could have swiped to the next article, but I didn’t. Those students weren’t faceless people to me. They had names, faces, and personalities, and I knew them. Then I begin to think about the different challenges students face today compared to their predecessors. My mind starts to think about how I can be part of a solution, versus a person just accepting things to change on their own. I ask you, how many articles or pieces of news do you casually scroll by? How often do we see things happening in our communities and cities, and we don’t think it affects us? I’m not saying we should be triggered by everything. Hypersensitivity is not the answer to desensitization, but we need to have a level of compassion towards situations, whether we think we are being directly impacted or not. Next time you come across something negative in the news, take a second. Process your initial emotions. Next, consider how this news affects others, and then consider how it could affect you. Lastly, consider any action you can take. You may not be able to do anything but pray and meditate. And that is enough in itself. Let's not allow the news to just float by without us taking into account what's happening in our society. We have the power to change the articles. Let's give the media something more uplifting to report on.