Thinking Out Loud, Volume CDXLIX

Okay, let's sit back, take a deep breath, and put this whole situation into perspective. Population of the United States: 318,924,000 Yearly US heart related deaths: 600,000 Yearly US deaths in auto accidents: 30,000 Ebola related deaths in the US: 1 In no way am I making light of the danger of Ebola, but I don't understand why there is so much panic in our country over this disease. Well, maybe I DO understand.....we're allowing all the hype from the news media to affect our thinking. When anyone drives as many miles per year as I do, we will occasionally see horrific auto accidents, and though it disturbs me for a while, I must admit that by the time I get home that night, I have basically forgotten about it. The lives of family and friends of the victims are forever altered, but for the rest of us, we don't give it much thought after a day or two. Yet we panic over Ebola, even though the number of automobile accident deaths are more than 30,000 times the number of Ebola related deaths. Each one of us can name someone with whom we're well acquainted who has succumbed to heart disease, yet we go on living as before, continuing our high heart risk lifestyles. We've all seen tragic car wrecks, yet we make no changes to our risky driving habits, possibly even texting about it while driving. Then we hear about only four people in our country who either have, or have had, Ebola, out of a population of almost 319 million, and we panic. A few years ago our big concern was HIV, but we don't think too much about that any more, even though it's still as dangerous as before. Why is that? It has to do with where the news media chooses to put their focus. Are we that gullible? Maybe we are. If a major bridge would collapse next week, we would soon forget about Ebola and start worrying about crossing bridges. I guess it tells us something about human nature, but it's a part of our nature I'd like to see change. Oh well, I suppose we always need SOMETHING to worry about. Preston Sent from my iPad