But if I don't need any more of the notion that life is crap, what is it that I need? We all have needs. Food, water, a place to rest, a willing sexual partner, all of these are needs. But what if one of our needs was a bit of hope?
Can I take a bus there?
I'm not talking about Sherpard Ferry type hope, I'm talking about the kind of reaffirmation that not everything we deal with each day is a total piece of crap. If you have turned on the news lately you will see what I'm going on about. There is an effort to convey things as despondently as possible. This makes you think things are bad, and in turn, when things are bad, you need to protect yourself and your family from them. It's human nature. It's how you've gotten to this point in life. It's survival. What would happen though, if this was being used to manipulate you, to make you a willing consumer of something, something like the news?
I don't think it's a secret that what is put on the air in America's local news broadcasts is little more than a police blotter of the previous 24 hours. Here in Los Angeles, a metropolis of almost 16 million people, the news chronicles the number of murders at the top of each broadcast. It's a humbling thing to watch and depending on the level of violence that's occurred in different parts of the city, it can take up the entirety of a broadcast, well almost, but we need to know how hot it was today and what the Dodgers did the night before.
I watched a newscast in May that started off with four murders. It was horrifying. Families were interviewed after discovering a loved one had been killed. Neighbors with looks of vacuous apathy at the further degradation of their neighborhoods. A money shot of the crime scene, with police tape and blood splatter just to remind you what had happened. It was shocking and I was with family members that were upset at what they were seeing but glad they had an alarm on their house. And wouldn't you know, there was an advertisement for ADP security systems in the same 30 minute program window. It was subtle, but I'm sure effective.
Press this for extra fear.
So what is the point of all of this? Well, here are some facts. These facts are about crime, in particular, violent crime. The bad kind that destroys lives, families and neighborhoods. In Los Angeles county the violent crime rate per 100,000 residents has dropped in just 10 years from 927 violent crimes per 100,000 in the year 2000 to 526 per 100,000 in 2009. Violent crime has dropped by 43% in that time. Homicides only dropped by 35% over that same time. This is just for Los Angeles, but the numbers are similar across the nation. In fact, we are seeing homicide numbers that are lower than they've been going all the way back to the mid 60's.
This is good news. In a megalopolis of 16 million, bad things will happen. But statistically the number of bad things is dropping, yet despair is filling the air time. Depending on the news day, it might look like the Battle of the Bulge is being waged off Rosecrans Avenue. Am I saying that everything is peachy? No, not at all. But instead of addressing any of the causes of the issues being reported on, the news is just regurgitating sensationalized tidbits that are scary and easy to yell at you in-between your favorite shows at 8:59 PM.
So take a minute to have a little hope. Be less leery of your neighbor, maybe say hello. It's not too late for the average person in America to look around and be proud of what we have. Can it be better? Of course it can, but it could be worse. Now if only we could address human, physical and economic issues in the vein of problem solving instead of ideological talking points being lobbed like grenades from one side of the aisle to the other. There I go hoping again.
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