Batten down the hatches, friends – it’s time for a rant.

I just turned on the television to watch while I was eating my breakfast.  Good Morning America was on.  I watched only a few minutes before becoming too angry and nauseated to continue.

Amanda Bynes, Memorial Day sales, and a reporter would couldn’t tell us that a chair once priced at $1000, now on sale for $600, was discounted 40%.  In her world it had been discounted 30%. Really? Even I, with my math short-circuit know the answer to THAT one; but, that’s not the point.

The point is, Amanda Bynes, another child star is in free fall because she had more money than guidance.  Sad? Yes.  Newsworthy? Not this weekend.  What young soldiers were killed this week? What were their names? Where were they from? Who did they leave behind?  Why, on this weekend especially, are we not hearing their names, their stories?  Why are we not thanking their families for the sacrifices they made – “they” being both the soldier and the family?

Because our media is out of touch with the rest of the country.  The values and priorities of gargantuan population centers like New York City and Los Angeles are, by necessity, far different from the ones in Wesson, MS. That’s fine. It’s to be expected and is, in and of itself, not an issue.   Those two population centers are also the news and entertainment centers of our country – they are our mouthpieces.  The issue is that our mouthpieces are shouting values that are defined by only a very few of our citizens.  Those few present their own values and interests as the norm (because in their minds they are) when they may not be aligned with our country as a whole or with our country’s history. And, on this day, our history isn’t about celebrity jail time or furniture sales.

TODAY, this weekend, we honor those who fell in service to their country, to OUR country – a very specific group of men and women who put their money where their mouths were.  Celebrities and ordinary citizens alike who CHOSE to serve.  They voluntarily put themselves into harm’s way and they died for it.  Is it REALLY too much to ask that we remember them and thank them for one day out of the year?

But, it’s not Memorial Day yet, you may say.  That’s not until Monday.  Right. 1. Their deaths are worth only one day of recognition, not three? 2. Is the conversation really going to shift that much? I doubt it.  Are our airwaves going to be filled with stories of those soldiers in both the near and distant past who have died in service?  I doubt it. Will we even see as many stories about them as we will about building a barbeque pit?  Sadly, I doubt it.

The reporter mentioned that our biggest decisions this weekend would be: beach or backyard? burgers or hot dogs?  Our biggest decisions ought to be which National Cemetery to visit, which fallen to honor, how to help surviving families.

Maybe I just didn’t watch the show long enough.  Maybe there was more on there than just the pap that I witnessed.

I sure hope so.