11:06 p.m. - 2008-08-19
Tune In or Stop Whining : Get in the Game!
The other day the radio went out in my truck. Now I know that to most people this isn't that big of deal but when you drive around all day making fuel deliveries it ranks right up there in the natural disaster category. Anyway, for the rest of what turned out to be an extremely long day I was forced to listen only to the persistent humming of the engine and an air conditioner that was only cooling the air to about 85 degrees. The frustration of that day spurred me to make the decision to finally step into the 21st century and purchase an Ipod. "Ya, an IPod", I thought to myself. "Now I can listen to all of my music, all of my favorite radio stations, and even take it with me anywhere!" It seemed a simple enough plan, and after a hot mostly silent day money was no object. So after work I swung by Circuit City to check them out. As I was browsing through the various Ipod's and MP3 players that ranged from 30 to 500 dollars I began to notice a problem. Almost none of these things had a radio on them, and the ones that did only had FM. Now this presents a profound problem for me because, and I know that I'm gonna look like a huge dork after saying this but here goes,���most of what I listen to in the truck all day is talk radio. Don't get me wrong, I love music and even play the guitar, but listening to ten or more hours of music a day can get pretty mind numbing. So, thinking this must be some kind of horrible advertising error, I quickly grab a clerk and ask him, "Do any of these things have AM on them?" This trendy little saggy pants skater douchbag looks at me like I just asked him where the 8 tack section was and says, "no dude, I think their kinda phasing that out", with a smirk. After I shook off the urge to break this guy's pencil neck, I calmly asked him what my alternatives were. I looked over at the more expensive ones hoping that the answer might be there but he quickly told me that, "those ones over there just have screens for watching videos and movies." Movies? These things had 2 by 2 inch little screens on them, who the hell is gonna watch a full length feature film on that! Anyway, he pointed me in the direction of the little 20 dollar walkman radios and I walked out of the store. Now, am I the one out of touch? Am I the one unplugged? Rush Limbaugh, not that I like the guy, just signed a $400,000,000.00 dollar, eight year contract last week with Premier Radio. That's one of, if not the biggest radio contract in broadcasting history, and it was given to a guy who plays almost entirely on AM radio. So, I'm not sure if I'm the one that should feel out of touch here. Ever since 911 I have become somewhat of a political junkie. I am really interested in issues that effect us here at home as well as around the world. We live in the greatest country on earth and are given the opportunity to participate in the evolution of this wonderful land. The thing that really gets me when I look around at a lot of the people that I share this country with is the wave of apathy that I see. People just don't seem to be engaged anymore in the interests of their country, or even their community. I have so many friends that couldn't tell you who's even running for president, but they can tell you the names of every hot new band on the scene. Again, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be cultured, but I really think that people should look at spending more time in the realm of ideas and thoughtful debate. The reason that we see a rapidly changing sociopolitical climate in this country that we are not happy with, is because we barely even have a majority of the population voting. Last election we had the highest voter turnout ever with 60% of the populous in the voting bloc. Where is the other 40%? I can assure you that they still have opinions and when things go wrong they bitch just like the rest of us. I always hear people saying, "What's this world coming to?" I got news for you, this world is coming to exactly what you let it come to the minute you decided to flip the channel on over to American Idol and tune out.
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