Asheville – It will be interesting to see if the riots across the United States continue after the nation’s news media outlets declared former Vice President Joe Biden the presumptive next president.
In addition to the challenges of COVID-19 and its associated economic fallout and restrictions, violence has rocked the nation. Cities stand by while businesses are destroyed and burned. Police and news reporters are physically and verbally assaulted and even murdered in the course of doing their jobs. All the while, officials are doing little to nothing to punish those responsible for the civil unrest.
So, is the rioting over? Will it return if the courts find evidence of enough voter fraud to flip a couple of states back to President Trump? Is it all about who makes enough noise and violence to get their way? After all, it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.
Have we become a nation that is so divided that there is no way to heal our differences? That if one finds his neighbor voted a different way than they did that they no longer are neighborly? I think these are all good questions that demand an answer. I personally lay a lot of the blame for our divisions on social media and the news media. Yes, that’s right—my trade.
First, social media allows the worst of us to come out in verbal attacks on posts (i.e., people) we disagree with. We attack people on social media without even knowing them or knowing anything about them—we just know they posted something we disagree with. Therefore, they must be evil. If anything can dehumanize us to other people who might disagree with us, it’s a post on social media.
Next, the news media—whether it be media on the left or media on the right—polarize our views. Whatever happened to unbiased news reporting facts not opinions? Truth is, there’s not enough news to fill the air for 24-hour, 7-days-a-week news channels. There must be interjections by the talking heads, filling the airwaves with opinions and few facts. I long for the days when a reporter could urge, like Dragnet’s Joe Friday, “Just the facts, ma’am.”
As for voter fraud, I can’t say if there was widespread voter fraud. I see news reports from both sides of the mainstream media, so I guess I’ll leave it up to the courts to decide. As for me, as long as it is a fair election, my job, as a follower of Christ, is straightforward. I’m to pray for my elected leaders, whether they are Democrats or Republicans.