by Jerry Burke
This would be the distraction I needed, I thought to myself. For the last week, my television set's been glued to the round-the-clock coverage of the "war" in Iraq. I can't help myself. Back in 1991, there was only one 24-hour news network. Today, there are four, making a total of 96 hours of news a day, not including the networks.
I am an addict. All those graphics, with the bold music sounding off like trumpeters upon distant peaks, flashes of pictures of all the main players flying across the screen like a movie trailer. Poor quality video phone uplinks, calls from reporters who for all I know could be in south Jersey and more retired brass than a philharmonic storeroom quicken my blood as I anxiously await word on how the war goes.
I needed to get away from it all. When you get to the point where the geography of Iraq is more familiar to you than a road map of Long Island, you've had enough.
So I watched the Oscars, which were considerably toned down from the usual glitz, knowing full well that many of the honorees would make statements on the conflict before being drowned out by their own music. And then it happened. Not more than a half hour into the affair, the war music began. It was an update. They had found me! They knew I was trying to escape, and they needed to pull me back in before they lost me. Darn you, Peter Jennings, darn you to heck!
I do know, however, that I am not alone. Many of you are following the unfolding events many thousands of miles away carefully. You may know one of the brave soldiers involved in the conflict and maybe hope to catch a glimpse of them. The deeper they go into Iraq, the more harrowing the news may get. Already we have POW's, and more setbacks are likely.
Unlike the around the clock coverage of Sept. 11, during which I felt almost criminal whenever I turned it off, I can already hear the voices in my head telling me to ease up. Granted, it is so hard to do, but chances are that "historic" speech by Saddam is just going to be more of the same.
"Don't look at the tube too long," my mother used to say to me. She was right, as always, except for the "go out and get some sun" thing. Getting an update once in a while is fine, but chain-watching explosions and death is a morbid proposition. In age when news is at your door almost the instant it happens, there are bound to be mistakes and false information floating about. Let the dust settle a little, keep our boys and girls in mind and watch some good old-fashion American trash.
