Publisher's Desk

by Bill Bailey, Guest Writer

One of the things I do at The Calhoun Chronicle is research for “This Week In History.” Reading the Chronicle about life back as far as 100 years ago has shown me that people were very “community minded,” until not too long ago. Folks turned out in mass for community improvement projects, fairs, ball games or anything that put them together with fellow citizens or was deemed exciting or helpful. Our community parks are an example of this cooperation and involvement. I now wonder if they were just bored.

With the advent of radio, then motion pictures, television, cable, satellite TV and now the internet (which combines all of the preceding entertainments), I am of the opinion that no one has time nowadays for any community involvement.

We are too busy--but would love to help out with this or that if we only had the time. We don’t find it necessary to go out into the community any longer. We can visit with our friends and family on Facebook. We are not bored anymore, just over stimulated.

I am also a victim of the entertainment age. We used to get one channel on our TV, channel 5. Since there was hardly ever anything on channel 5 worth watching, we spent a lot of time outside doing yard work or simply enjoying the day. We were, of course, bored.

Now we have a dual satellite receiver, with DVR, and it seems we spend as little time as possible outside. I find myself thinking that it might be a good day to go fishing, but wait, isn’t there a NASCAR race this afternoon, followed by a pre-season football game. Fishing is put off until next week. I see that the yard needs mowed, so I look to the weather channel and the radar shows rain will fall here in about an hour. I guess I will mow tomorrow, maybe; then I check the TV schedule to see what I want to watch.

It was said, back in the time when Rome ruled the world, that all that was needed to keep the populace happy was bread and circuses. As long as their bellies were full and they were entertained, they would not pay attention to the bad times that they were living through. They would also do nothing to change the status quo, because they would like it as it was.

I guess we all should be happy.