Television brings usrioting in a controlled
environment, the familyroom along with
breakfast, volume down wewatch them,
edited with a commentarythat makes it
seem well organized, acity here, a city
there, dark scenesbacklit with buildings
blazing, dancing figuresmoving to the beat
of sirens and shouting.It’s quite a display
for early in the day, butlike drivers passing
a car wreck we feelcompelled to slow
down to watch – it’ssomething we are
used to, over the yearsthese shows have
become part of ournational climate, cities
burning, hysteria playedout over and over
to the point that weexpect them, watch
them, say a few thingsabout them, then
we do nothing to dealwith them and their
cause. Right now, theyplay quite well in our
plagued world with thevirus running riot
across out TV screens,well edited with
commentary enough to makethings seem
almost organized – andthere we are in
our cars, in our lanesgoing by, getting
a brief glimpse of thecar wreck we make
of our world.
