The March No One's Hearing About

There is safety in numbers. Unions, peer pressure, protests, petitions for change, revolutions, victims of rape from a celebrity figure all gain momentum because of this idea. Whether you agree with the cause or not is irrelevant, I think we can all acknowledge that numbers and mass support for a specific cause are the reasons things succeed and change happens, and lack of it is the reason things fail. 

I hate to be this way, but the media bias has never been more clear to me than it is as I'm typing this, their plan laid out in full view. 

In recent years, it seems we have become obsessed with reporting on extreme weather, so this week has proven a nice little frenzy for the news stations to continually talk about. With the impending snow storm heading for Washington, D.C. tomorrow, I am stunned that there has been no mention of the March for Life which will be taking place right in the middle of the blizzard on the national mall. Coverage of the March for Life has been practically nonexistent in recent years anyways, but I thought surely there would be some sort of mention due to the extreme weather situation the marchers will find themselves in. 

Nope. I was wrong. How silly of me. 

I can guarantee that if the marchers in D.C. would be marching—or buzz word of the year "protesting"—for Black Lives Matter, or income equality, or transgender rights, or whatever liberal cause-of-the-day it is, there would be TONS of news coverage. It would sound like this:

News desk: And now we're going to go to Sarah, who is live in Washington, D.C. with the protesters and some of the awful conditions they are starting to see there. Sarah?

Sarah: Yes Todd, I'm here on the national mall and it is getting cold here. Protesters have started to huddle together for warmth and protection from this absolutely brutal wind we're getting. They are bracing themselves for below zero temps and blizzard conditions and they have shelters and medical stations set up nearby in the event anyone needs to get warm. Simply terrible to think about what they will be going through in the coming hours. But they're not letting it get their spirits down. --cut to pre-recorded interviews with random people--

Random man: You know, it's not exactly what we were hoping for, it's a bit of a damper on things, but we're not letting it get us down. We have a right to be here and we will continue on as planned because we know that our message needs to be heard. 

Random woman: This weather isn't going to stop us, no way. The whole reason we are here is <insert cause here> and we will keep on marching come rain, snow, ice, fire, whatever!

Sarah: As you heard, the protesters are in high spirits even though they face an unprecedented storm. Forecasters have upped their totals to over two feet of snow now. But that's not going to stop them, and we'll stay here to bring you the latest as the storm intensifies. Reporting for NBC, I'm Sarah Smith. 

But no. Those interviews are not happening because the select few at the helm of deciding what is reported on in the mainstream media have deemed this unworthy of their time. 

In doing so, they alienate the pro-life movement. Deliberately. If no one is hearing about the hundreds of thousands of people who believe in being pro-life, then how can anyone know there is such a cause to believe in? Young people who may be on the fence about the issue are left to think that NO ONE is fighting to end abortion, save for the few who stand outside clinics and the occasional politician, and might as well join the pro-choice crowd because, well, they don't feel like there is much of a pro-life movement left to join. Surely if there was, they'd hear about it, right? But this is the media's agenda: report on what you like and want people to believe in, don't report on what you don't. No wonder more and more young people identify with democratic causes, they're not even hearing the alternative argument.

It is unnerving to me to think that if a march of hundreds of thousands of people is getting little to no coverage in the media, what else are they not reporting on? I hate to sound like a right-wing nut job conspiracy theorist, but seriously. Whether you agree or disagree, just look at the fact that that many people are gathering in our nation's capital to fight for a cause; it is ludicrous to think that it would go completely ignored. 

Hospital Time, Next Week

Well, the time has come. After 7 months, my out-of-hospital stint will run out. The plan is to go into the hospital next Monday, unless I get sicker and then I'll go in sooner.

I talked to Donna today and she let me know the results of my sputum culture. Not the worst, but not very good either. I'm almost completely resistant with one strain of bacteria, except I have an intermittent sensitivity to one drug. And it's a penicillin, which I'm allergic to, so that means desensitization again. We used this med last time, and it worked, though I had some side effects, which means I'll be staying there the full two weeks instead of doing some meds at home. The other strain of bacteria had two options, which still isn't great, but at least I'm not allergic to any of those. The silver lining in all this is no staph, so at least we don't have to worry about that right now.

My bugs are constantly battling it out down in my lungs for space. Pseudomonas is known as the chameleon, according to my doctor, because it constantly shifts in drug sensitivities and such. Right now I have a lot of pseudomonas, which means that potentially the pseudomonas knocked out the staph so they could take over and rule the kingdom that is Jamie's Airways. Who knows. 

My growing trend over the past year is more resistance, which does concern me a little, but I'm not letting myself dwell on it. Every single culture is different, which makes it confusing, but ergo: chameleon. I've had three consecutive cultures come back now that are mostly resistant, which isn't cool. More than anything, though, this just reinforces the importance of exercise and my treatments. If I can keep my lungs clear for longer, than that will prevent the bugs from ganging up. If there is less gunk for them to populate and grow in, then that's all the better for me. 

I'm hoping we can make some progress in this hospital stay, I have to have faith that we will, even though our drug options are limited. I really need your prayers, though. I'd love to turn this resistance train around, but it's out of my control.

Shared Videos

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed earlier, I came across a video. You know the kind, the sweet, emotional tear-jerkers that someone originally posts, and then others share them over and over and over, possibly going "viral."

There have been many debates, especially regarding adults of my generation, about 'living in the moment.' As in Put your phone down, dummy, and enjoy this moment before it passes. A few months back, there was an article about people at a parade. Every single person (really, every one of them) was holding their phone up to take a photo or video as the parade came down the road. Everyone except for this one little old lady, who was smiling and actually watching the parade. I can say I'm guilty of this occasionally, though not nearly as much as some.

Thanks to our readily available smart phones, we've turned into a culture that wants to document EVERYTHING. And in some ways, this is arguably a good thing. Children born these days will have way more photos of their growth and development as they get older than any generation before. I take photos of my dog all the time. Do I need to take that many? No, but it makes me happy to look at them sometimes when I'm down.

On one hand, this doesn't seem all that far off from days gone by when a designated family member held the camera, looked through the lens, and took our pictures. I don't think I would have said they "weren't living in the moment" by being the family photographer for the day. But somehow it does seem a bit more extreme now, doesn't it? Way more narcissistic, when you add in the element of posting it online. I know some people who seemingly can't have a family get-together without taking multiple candid and posed photos. It's not like they're crazy people, they're just obsessed with holding onto those moments, capturing them for all time. Funny though, I think it's safe to say that never before have we taken so many photos, but had so few physical photos to show for it. For all these photos we've taken, we sure don't print out many of them. (Hey, remember the days of photo albums? That you actually flipped through, like, with your hands, haha?)

I certainly understand wanting to preserve memories. I'm nostalgic for the past, love looking at old black and white photos, and am a bit of a pack-rat when it comes to being sentimental about things. But I also believe that some moments should simply be enjoyed between the people in the room. There is something beautiful about that. Not everything needs to be documented, and beyond that not everything needs to be shared for everyone to see.

I should make a point here to say that I find a big difference between 'sharing things with only your friends' and 'sharing things publicly online.' I still don't feel everything needs to be posted, but I really don't understand the people who share things for the entire world to see—literally.

So as I was scrolling through my Facebook, there was a video of an old lady. She had just been given a very special gift. Her husband had passed away, and she was given a pillow that was made of an old shirt of his, so she can always "have his shoulder to lean on" or something along those lines.

Grandma was crying, obviously. It was a sweet moment, but this is just one of probably hundreds of videos now that I almost wish I didn't see. It feels awkward. I don't know these people, yet I'm somehow peering into this very special, very intimate moment in their lives. I almost feel bad for the grandma, that one of her family members is shoving a cell phone in her space like a television reporter so they can record every second of her reaction.

There was just something about it, the invasion of privacy, that led me to write all this. I think we could all use a moment to re-examine how we view our world via our phones. Take pictures, sure, but keep them to yourself and your loved ones. You don't have to invite the world into your living room.