What would Mama say?

Sometimes I wonder what my grandmother would think if she were here to see what makes the news now. Fighting and turmoil overseas have always been a constant, but what about the rest? I think she would be surprised to see that smoking has become the banned evil that it is. I think she would be shocked to find that what was once shame is now commonplace, and that a political figure would be criticized for suggesting that a man and woman be married before having a baby. Religion and religions managed to stay out of the news when she was around because - perhaps - people lived by a common, acceptable moral code. Now that morality is deemed unpopular by much of the news sources and the culture. I think Muslims hardly ever made the news back then, but that has changed. She would recognize how many freedoms we have lost by the news that reflects laws that probably were not in place fifty years ago. I think she would be disappointed to learn that we cannot always trust our elected officials and appalled by the whining of the various “special interest” groups as her generation just bucked up and kept going. What I observe is what is reported as news would not have been news fifty years ago.