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Controversial News
While the state of world affairs has been a concern for many years, it was not until September of 2008 that the media began reporting in earnest on developments that apparently just came to their attention, giving indications to the general public that matters were far worse than many of us might have supposed.
News hounds saw this situation developing as early as 2001, when the large American corporations started outsourcing our technology, then representing 52% of our GDP. Others saw even earlier signs of what has now come home to roost, in the form of the NAFTA and CAFTA agreements, which were purportedly designed to benefit workers around the world, including American workers. This must have been poorly written legislation, because the results have proven to benefit large corporations at the expense of exploited workers. These issues are now largely forgotten in the face of the global recession no one can ignore.
In past years, controversial news topics amounted to manageable issues which could be tackled, one at a time. Pro-life versus pro-choice. Global warming. Entire organizations were dedicated to their particular issue. Now, all of a sudden, any single issue pales in comparison to the flood of problems we all face in our everyday experience. It's at best, disingenuous, to think that someone can wave a magic wand and eradicate or solve all of the problems. Almost every person on the planet is aware that we're all in dire straights. Every substantive news report constitutes a controversial news topic! The controversy consists of what is to be done to resolve them all. A tall order indeed!
Most people were scandalized at the Enron debacle, where thousands of people lost their life savings, jobs and retirement plans. At the time, we thought this was just an isolated occurrence, reprehensible, but not the norm. Then came the government takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. However, when Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and AIG went under, we were shocked. Banks were going belly up by the dozens. The government declared that these institutions were 'too big to fail' and implemented a bailout plan, later redefined as a 'rescue' plan. These huge failures made for controversial news topics indeed. The public was well aware that these massive, multi-billion dollar failures did not just fall out of the sky. Political and consumer-oriented blogs went crazy, developing these controversial news topics to the hilt.
To our burgeoning list of controversial news topics, we can now add the global recession, the U.S. economic state, rising unemployment, home foreclosures, poorly constructed health care plans, energy and clean alternatives to oil and world conflicts. America is actively involved in two wars, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unresolved. Genocide occurs in African nations every day, with no resolution in sight.
All of these problems are so severe that you can't help but wonder what it might take to bring a stabilizing force to bear. If you're into controversial news topics, 2009 is your year. Perhaps now is the time to speak out. Controversial topics are typically ignored in polite conversation, but we may be beyond the traditional, politically correct boundaries.
There's a definite need for diplomatic and intelligent solutions if we are to engender hope. Perhaps it's time to indulge in thinking of our options and speaking your mind on the controversial news topics of the day. Have I left anything out? Surely, but this plate is already big enough.
About the Author Charlie Reese enjoys giving news and psychic advice on his horoscope website daily.
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