by November 16, 2021
A great man said November is a month to breed pessimists. (He was Canadian and facing months of battleship grey… Meanwhile, I’m Texan and optimistic to post daily this crystal-clear month.)
I’m a ramblin guy. Recording this on audio as I drive through Southern Illinois.
The weekend was terrific. The former place of residence remains as strong as ever with a tradition that turns out terrific young men (just was named outstanding chapter for the entire nation, their first such win in 24 years).
So many old friends turned out, and new connections formed among their sons and mine. Time with John was a blast. A high point: tailgating with dozens of familiar faces before the debacle of a football game.
Friday lunch with Don and David at Trojan Horse was… searching for the right word. “Significant” might be too strong, but it had meaning to be back with them after so long. David and I calculated we hadn’t seen each other in 13 years. Insane.
Question: When did everyone on Interstates decide to just start hauling ass? Recollection from a younger-driver era: most everybody drove within 10-15 mph of the speed limit, and a big-time speeder doing 98 mph was an outlier.
Today everybody disregards posted speed limits as a group. Back during the so-called energy crisis, Nixon reduced the interstate’s speed limit to 55, where it remained nationwide for years until 65 mph came into being circa 1990.
But it seems that sometime around the turn of the century, a combination of things took place. Perhaps the manner in which law enforcement polices the speed limit changed.
Another factor: today, all cars regardless of make are better designed, better made and quiet. A vehicle approaching a hundred miles an hour in 1979, you felt it. Your car was a bucket of bolts ready to come apart, like the joke in The Blues Brothers where the Bluesmobile at the conclusion of its necessity falls apart in an instant.
Maybe a kid just doesn’t notice, growing up and then as a new driver, how many vehicles speed on the interstate. Something’s changed, though, where scofflaws and grandpas alike do 90. Eighteen wheelers on I-30 in Arkansas run 85 miles an hour as a matter of routine in open stretches. These were things you just didn’t see.
Lots of abandoned vehicles on the Interstates. Noticeable. Is this the new standard? Just leave the dispossessed, people or machines, by the roadside?
Knew I couldn’t stick around, I had to roam
LATER… Little Rock — Does anybody watch or visit the website for “ABC World News Tonight,” or read the morning news anymore? Without airports and hotel lobbies, would CNN or USA Today have any audience left?
Mom was watching “World News Tonight,” the first network news broadcast I’d seen in several years. The experience was excruciating.
What’s happening across US media, every outlet, is unfortunate.
Once technology revealed which content drove the most engagement, the old news model died, replaced by a Be First, Check Later urgency built to lure eyeballs and tweak headlines for clicks.
The result: the widest gap in opinion America has seen, driven by these tools.
Persuasion, not journalism.
Sad, for a profession that I aspired to and studied as a young man. Ultimately, I gravitated towards the business communications side for my 9-to-5 career, but that doesn’t mean I lack respect for what the institution used to be.
Social media, smartphones and confirmation bias drove much of this widening opinion gap. Platforms learned to push emotional buttons based on preference. It’s remarkable what they know.
Some people recognize the new media landscape for what it is. Yet plenty more don’t, and they’re the ones persuaded daily, consuming it without question.
The “good news” is future consumers don’t watch the news. Here’s hoping the next generation, with different media habits, sees through this and moves toward a more responsible model.
Okay that’s all for now, hope you enjoyed these weak ramblings.
Wait there’s more.
TEXARKANA —and the scent of burning mesquite in rural Texas on a crisp 46-degree evening. Love it… and:
Gratitude is my word for this year.
It’s fantastic Rob playing for UTD which means we don’t have to say goodbye to the basketball bond that has been such a strong one in our family’s social calendar for 16 years.
It is a real blessing to have John plugged in and enjoying IU. John will play intramural hoops which is pretty serious, high level.
We get three and a half more years and the action and the fun just tipped off for this year within the last week. Rob’s team is now 2-0, and will be playing a pair of ball games in Georgetown in one week’s time. (John’s IMs will begin in January.)
Ben is looking at graduate doctoral programs and got accepted to one last week. So his journey takes a new turn here shortly. More gratitude thoughts next week.
Right now, I got to be moving on.
Stuart Wade 