Not as broken as it seems

The world is not as broken as it seems. That's a central belief of Buddhists, optomists and high-flying kite personalities the world over. Given a long enough timeframe, even the worst of problems seem more manageable.

Today the US Justice department chipped in some survey statistics to suggest personal safety is getting no worse — and is a lot better than it was 10 or 20 years ago. The government issued a press release titled "Violent crimes and property crimes remained at 30-year lows in 2004."

www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/cv04pr.htm

In addition to fewer crimes against property and person, the biggest crime, murder, also dropped. "Preliminary murder estimates for 2004 from the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports indicate the number of murders decreased 3.6 percent from 2003. This is about the same per capita rate as that of the mid-1960s."

Do you feel safer this year than five years ago? If not, you might want to check out how much news you're consuming. Over the weekend here in Texas we got the worst possible forecasts for our future from the TV. Millions homeless. 25 percent of US oil refineries offline around the Texas gulf. Gas to $7 a gallon. It drove millions onto the roads here. The local traffic control signs out on US 183 by our house yesterday read "Massive delays to Houston. Gas shortage."

The day before, the signs were directing people to storm shelter at the local McNeil High School gym. Now they were being warned to stay away from returning home. Too many were on the road at once. Our friend Michelle had her parents staying at her house here, refugees from New Orleans who had their house along Lake P. ruined. They evacuated from Houston, where they took shelter after Katrina. Predictions of doom were thick on the TV for days before Rita hit the Sabine Pass. The Whole Foods market near our house not only sold out of bottled water, but sold out of the massive plastic bottles to hold the filtered water sold by the gallon there. By Saturday, the HEB where Nick works was full of people returning cases of water. Yesterday Austin set a record high for the date, 108 degrees.

Some of those evacuees felt prudence in escaping, I suppose, but think of all those who avoided days on the road, dehydration, the expense of hotel rooms, emergency supplies. How broken could the weather be here in the Hill Country? A stray tornado is all this town has ever seen over the 27 hurricane seasons I've watched.

News can help, but you might want to tune out for awhile and see if you feel healthier. One of the practices in the Dr. Andrew Weill Eight Weeks to Optimum Health plan is a one-week news fast. As he says, "I want you to discover and make use of the fact that you have choice as to how much news you allow into your consciousness, especially if it disturbs your emotional and spiritual equilibrium."

George Will posted a great column not long ago for Newsweek on "nominal news." News organizations should be like doctors, he said. A doctor's oath begins with a pledge not to make a patient any sicker. News organizations should pledge not to subtract from public understanding, "but subtract they do."

A friend of mine passed along a message about the three tests for reporting information: Truth, Goodness or Usefulness. If news doesn't pass any of those three tests, then it's really just low-budget entertainment. I believe that thinking the world is broken is a poor substitute for genuine entertainment: stories presented as compelling fiction, rather than speculation about a future that hasn't arrived. We don't need to believe the world is broken to participate in its story.