It was an interesting day today. I am visiting Harrisburg. I'm in the hotel lobby a few blocks from the Capital and a man walks behind me in line with a cellphone to his ear. He lowers his voice, inferring that what he has to say is somewhat secretive. His voice is still impossible to tune out as we wait in line. He is telling the person on the other end of the line that he has just found out that they are going to tax "a certain business profession" that I won't mention here." I'm trying to focus on something else. I would readily read intently about this in the paper but I just don't like information passed on to me in such a way. He proceeds to talk about what should be done when this happens. I turned around and walked away, to come back later.
A few hours later, I am in my hotel room and an alarm sounds in the hallway with a loudspeaker saying something about "not using the elevators on the way out. " I open the door and there is a hotel employee vacuuming. The alarm is still sounding with the instructions as I asked him what is going on. He shrugs and finally shuts off the vacuum, shakes his head, and walks away. On the walk down eight flights of stairway, others are filing behind me. Outside, we are directed to walk to a corner where about fifty of us wait in the cold while the firetrucks arrive, the firemen run in and ten minutes later we are directed back in with no explanation.
A few hours later, I walked into a little sandwich shop for dinner. I was alone and a television was blaring a basketball game between two teams from out West. I asked the waiter if he would mind putting on Fox News. He turned it on to a helicopter view of a U-Haul truck speeding along the highway, in and out of cars. The newscaster describes how a blond women apparently stole the truck and was leading police on a chase through an area near Malibu, California. She sideswipes a BMW, tearing off the mirror. The chase has been going on for about an hour. The employees gather around the television. At times she weaves to the right, onto the shoulder, at other times she crosses into the oncoming lane, barley missing vehicles. She runs red lights as she passes by Pepperdine University. Customers have come in and everyone is standing around watching the chase. I'm praying, for this is a very serious situation. The announcer says "We'll return to the chase after these commercials." A car insurance commercial comes on where a "crash car" smashes into an abutment, followed by three more commercials.
Back to the car chase. the police lay some "tire spikes" on the road but the driver crosses the grass medial strip and drives the wrong way before crossing back over just before an on coming car came. It has now been an hour and forty minutes of chase, total. I have been watching for about fifteen minutes. A police car is right behind her most of the way. According to the helicopter pilot, she is travelling between fifty and seventy miles per hour. The newscaster says a traffic light is coming up with cars stopped in all the lanes. The driver weaves left into the other lane, around a few cars and continues on. I'm still praying for a peaceful cessation of this.
It is 8 O'clock and we are told to stay tuned for Bill O'Reilly. I'm dumbfounded! I walked quickly back to the hotel and put the television on, switching the channels to find a station that was covering this. Nothing. I kept checking my IPhone Fox News and for forty-five minutes the original story remained at a 7:28 P.M. reporting time. I am not leaving this television or computer until I find out that this car chase is over. I'm trying to pray as I switch channels past the goofiest programs, every thirty channels coming to Bill O'Reilly's smiling face as he jokes about something or other. There is a news line at the bottom of the picture but it is about some other story.
Am I the only one in America that whose heart was beating fast over a situation that was endangering innocent people only to have it ignored ? Finally, Fox News internet reports that the women pulled off onto a rural road, stopped the U-Haul and tried to get into another car before being tackled by a police officer. It is 11 O'clock and I have heard no other news about the matter. Is a live newscast of such an event even a good thing? I don't know but it was there and I was involved...and then it wasn't there. And the beat goes on.
A few hours later, I am in my hotel room and an alarm sounds in the hallway with a loudspeaker saying something about "not using the elevators on the way out. " I open the door and there is a hotel employee vacuuming. The alarm is still sounding with the instructions as I asked him what is going on. He shrugs and finally shuts off the vacuum, shakes his head, and walks away. On the walk down eight flights of stairway, others are filing behind me. Outside, we are directed to walk to a corner where about fifty of us wait in the cold while the firetrucks arrive, the firemen run in and ten minutes later we are directed back in with no explanation.
A few hours later, I walked into a little sandwich shop for dinner. I was alone and a television was blaring a basketball game between two teams from out West. I asked the waiter if he would mind putting on Fox News. He turned it on to a helicopter view of a U-Haul truck speeding along the highway, in and out of cars. The newscaster describes how a blond women apparently stole the truck and was leading police on a chase through an area near Malibu, California. She sideswipes a BMW, tearing off the mirror. The chase has been going on for about an hour. The employees gather around the television. At times she weaves to the right, onto the shoulder, at other times she crosses into the oncoming lane, barley missing vehicles. She runs red lights as she passes by Pepperdine University. Customers have come in and everyone is standing around watching the chase. I'm praying, for this is a very serious situation. The announcer says "We'll return to the chase after these commercials." A car insurance commercial comes on where a "crash car" smashes into an abutment, followed by three more commercials.
Back to the car chase. the police lay some "tire spikes" on the road but the driver crosses the grass medial strip and drives the wrong way before crossing back over just before an on coming car came. It has now been an hour and forty minutes of chase, total. I have been watching for about fifteen minutes. A police car is right behind her most of the way. According to the helicopter pilot, she is travelling between fifty and seventy miles per hour. The newscaster says a traffic light is coming up with cars stopped in all the lanes. The driver weaves left into the other lane, around a few cars and continues on. I'm still praying for a peaceful cessation of this.
It is 8 O'clock and we are told to stay tuned for Bill O'Reilly. I'm dumbfounded! I walked quickly back to the hotel and put the television on, switching the channels to find a station that was covering this. Nothing. I kept checking my IPhone Fox News and for forty-five minutes the original story remained at a 7:28 P.M. reporting time. I am not leaving this television or computer until I find out that this car chase is over. I'm trying to pray as I switch channels past the goofiest programs, every thirty channels coming to Bill O'Reilly's smiling face as he jokes about something or other. There is a news line at the bottom of the picture but it is about some other story.
Am I the only one in America that whose heart was beating fast over a situation that was endangering innocent people only to have it ignored ? Finally, Fox News internet reports that the women pulled off onto a rural road, stopped the U-Haul and tried to get into another car before being tackled by a police officer. It is 11 O'clock and I have heard no other news about the matter. Is a live newscast of such an event even a good thing? I don't know but it was there and I was involved...and then it wasn't there. And the beat goes on.
