Top News

When I travel, I like to watch the local news a little while just to get a feel for the local life. Most of my view of Toronto this past couple of days has been cloaked by darkness and rain.

So I’ve seen stories on hikes in train fares and a local stabbing that left one Torontonian dead. Then there was the local newswoman on location being taught to milk a goat. (The difference there is that in Abilene the newswomen would have already known how to milk a goat. Okay, I’m stretching it. Probably a cow and maybe a goat.)

What’s been unique, really, is hearing world news from a perspective other than the United States. I’ve heard very little about what the White House did today. Fishing for Buffalo stations, I’ve discovered that NBC News has determined there is global warming. That follows groundbreaking work by CNN a couple of weeks ago.

I’m being sarcastic, of course. I mean I’m pleased that the top news organizations are shedding light on this very serious problem. I’m just shaking my head at all of the “official” — and often political — statements that have been made throughout my life that everything was as it should be. No, we were told, there’s no reason to change the way that we do things. No reason to curtail our extravagant ways.

Well this post isn’t about global warming, really. No, it’s more about what occupies our attention. The Buffalo station just reported the top 5 news stories for today. The top 2 were sports stories. Two seemed to have local merit. Number five? The Hollywood writers strike. Indeed, the late night talk shows are teetering on the edge of extinction.

I get caught up in what other people tell me is important. I’m thinking perhaps I should spend some concentrated effort on discovering what the top news in my world truly is.