The Week in Review

I was delighted to learn that Captain Richard Phillips was rescued from what looked like a certain death at the hands of modern-day pirates in the Indian Ocean. How brave of him to ask the captors to leg his men go and to keep him. And how wonderful to see that his men appreciate the sacrifice Captain Phillips came close to making. Go, Seals! Great markmanship.

Hollywood is abuzz about Mel Gibson's divorce after a long-term marriage performed without benefit of a prenuptial agreement. The man has $900 million dollars. Even if he has to give up half of it, that still leaves $450 million dollars. What's the big deal? I mean, can a 53-year-old possibly spend that much money in the rest of his lifetime?

Some somber anniversaries are being marked. The standoff at Waco happened on April 19th, the Columbine school shootings on April 20th. The event in which the most people perished, the domestic terrorism attack on the Murrah Federal Building on April 19th, once more gets short shrift. My heart grieves for those people. I'll never understand why the country seems to care so little about what happened to those people that day. This story got a fraction of the coverage Columbine gets. Oklahoma City got perhaps one minute of coverage in the middle of the broadcast I watched this evening. I suspect Columbine, which got a large chunk, perhaps three minutes, will figure prominently on the news tomorrow as well.

Our President is being chewed and spit out by Republicans who are offended that he shook hands with the leader of Venezuela, not a friend to the U.S. by any means, but that petulant attitude our previous president took didn't work, so why be rude?

I wish everyone a good week ahead.

3 comments:

shelia said...

Hi Bettye,

The Captain being rescued was a miracle. I'm still amazed at how the pirates are jacking ships almost daily. I love going on cruises but I won't be getting on a ship anytime soon.

I don't feel sorry for Gibson. You know for most women it takes a lot for us to leave a man we love. She got fed up and since she was with him for years, give her half and he can still live the life of a rich man. All this talk about divorce and millions has made me pick up the sequel to the Million Dollar Divorce by RM Johnson. It's been in my pile of books to read for awhile.

Hope you had a good weekend. I attended a women's conference and we took the youth from church skating. These old bones are tired but relaxed at the same time :)

DonnaD said...

The Seals rock! If there were ever a time to thank the military, this would be now. Now I'm just waiting on Phillips book deal. ;-)

I'm saddened about Gibson's divorce. They were married way before he became a superstar/Oscar winner. They've been through some rough times - really rough, according to him - and I guess she just had enough. I doubt he'll make a stink about the money; his lawyers probably will.

I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard about Oklahoma City. I can say the same for Columbine. The difference is that CNN wasn't around for OKC. It wasn't "sexy" news story, what with kids running and fleeing for their lives on live television over and over again. With OKC, we just got these one-off visuals of the building and the man carrying the dead child (he later committed suicide I believe).

If OKC had happened with CNN, we'd still be getting the memorials. I think we'll be seeing the last of the Columbine "specials" after this year. There's a whole generation of kids - even at Columbine - who don't even remember what happened and probably won't care. Same with OKC. Same with 9/11. Watch.

bettye griffin said...

Shelia, I think you'll be okay on a cruise ship as long as you're not sailing off the East African coast.

Ah yes, The Million Dollar Divorce. Great book.

You know, Donna, I do remember the day Oklahoma City was bombed back in the 1990s. I was preparing for an 11AM interview (got the job, BTW). But I don't recall Columbine. The reason for that is probably because my father had died on the 12th, and because school shootings were becoming horribly frequent.

I do agree with you about Oklahoma City and Columbine eventually fading. But I can't say that about 9/11, although probably with less coverage as the decades go by, e.g., November 22, 1963. In my opinion, September 11th will rank with December 7th and the 6th of June (D-Day) as a day in American istory that will never be forgotten.

As for the Gibsons, the one thing all of us can probably agree on is that neither of them will ever have to worry about money!

Thanks for commenting!