At a recent gathering I happened upon a suburban (Plano) housewife with a sing-song Ned Flanders voice and a Ned Flanders outlook to match. She began to make polite conversation with me, asking the usual slate of questions. When we got to my job I told her a bit about the Community Outreach programs that I coordinate for my company. I mentioned that we do a great deal of work with organizations that target Diabetes and Infant Mortality in the state of Texas. She was surprised to learn that in our ‘Great State of Texas’ Infant Mortality is on the rise and that the United States in general has Infant Survival Rates Lower Than Most Developed Nations’.

Upon hearing this news, she wondered aloud to me, in a hushed voice, “the Immigrants”? Again she was surprised to learn that the issue was of more concern among all populations. Actually, in Texas it is lower in the Hispanic group.

Now I admit, I spend far too much time digging into the news and on these particular topics I see statistics and reports during the course of my job that perhaps the average American doesn’t have ‘easy access’ to. However, I find it disturbing that everyone at the party knew a little something about Britney Spears’ kids, Brangelina’s pregnancy/ adoptions and had one opinion or another about Taylor Hicks.

“You’re beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here, you’re beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God’s name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion.”

– Howard Beale, Network