On the subject of "Turning on the Faucet"

Sometimes I write just to write. Many times, it's to get something off my mind.

Yesterday, in the midst of working, I told my co-worker how absolutely infuriated I was getting about the hype being given the "outbreak" of the swine flu in the media.

There are so many stories worth telling that to see the first 11 minutes of a newscast dedicated to the Swine Flu and how you are going to get it sickened me. Yes, I meant the pun.

So, in the spirit of a previous blog entry, I decided to create the Whine Flu Pandemic Central. I planted all the seeds with links about whining and such. I even took some clipart and gave it the logo treatment. Then I put out the all out effort to recruit people to "Become a Fan"

Line by line, word by word, I used humor to get out my anger at the overreaction of society to something that really does not need that much attention. And oh, by the way, did you happen to notice it's sweeps for television... that lovely time where news operations bring out the heavy lumber to tell you what you need to know so you have to, I mean HAVE TO tune in to that particular news that night.

I would understand it if there were hundreds of deaths instead of dozens of cases of this sickness throughout the country, but these stories seem to be nothing but scare tactics.

Case in point. Five schools in this area have been shut down for a week because of a "suspected case" of swine flu.

Meanwhile, just one block from my office, a doctor who was also suspected of having swine flu, treated many youngsters, not to mention had contact with parents. If this was so serious, wouldn't that entire clinic be shut down and every one of those kids alerted to inform their schools of the situation so that they could shut down, and all the businesses that this woman went to, including the place I probably had lunch, have signs saying there is a danger here?

Now I guess you might say it would be poetic justice if I caught this thing after having this opinion, but why aren't people mad as hell and not going to take this stuff anymore?

Then, yesterday, I saw a story on HBO about schools eliminating Dodgeball or Musical Chairs or any competition where there are definitive winners and losers, as they say it might hurt the morale of the people who could be excluded or, dare I say, lose.

If that were not enough, there is a school that has banned the game of tag because of the possibility of injury. Their solution, shadow tag, where you tag the person by stepping on their shadow. Oh, we aren't finished there. The school has banned all touching. I mean no touching. That means a pat on the back, a high five, a hug. These have been replaced by the "Air Five" and "Air Hugs."

Where in the hell is society going?

Well, I guess there might be one thing the two subjects I have ranted about have in common. If there was a no touching policy at all schools, the chance of spreading Swine Flu may have gone down exponentially.

I am getting off my soap box... turning off the faucet.

My time is up, I thank you for yours.

Yours truly,
Johnny Blogger