If he wins the election, Trump will commit the first crime of his second term at noon on Inauguration Day: His oath to defend the Constitution of the United States will be a perjury.Ī second Trump term would instantly plunge the country into a constitutional crisis more terrible than anything seen since the Civil War. It’s not impossible that he may already have been convicted in at least one of them. When people wonder what another Trump term might hold, their minds underestimate the chaos that would lie ahead.īy Election Day 2024, Donald Trump will be in the thick of multiple criminal trials. In a second, Trump would arrive with a much better understanding of the system’s vulnerabilities, more willing enablers in tow, and a much more focused agenda of retaliation against his adversaries and impunity for himself. In his first term, Trump’s corruption and brutality were mitigated by his ignorance and laziness. My second DVD of “Outlander” has just arrived, and as soon as I get this essay done, the rest of my day is free.Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. Therefore my resolution: When I watch, just as when I read, I’m going to banish feeling furtive and guilty. I’m willing to risk thickening my frontal cortex. I know I feel better if I binge-read, but it won’t stop me from watching too. I believe too much television is bad for you. I’d like to say the answer to TV versus books must be, as Aristotle said, “Moderation in all things,” though he never had a television or a computer and had to read his papyrus scrolls by candlelight. Many people tell me they just don’t read anymore, and that breaks my heart, but there’s a lot of good TV now, Golden Age-type TV. Who didn’t catch at least some of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings or Bishop Curry’s homily at the Markle-Windsor royal wedding? At work or a party, it’s easier to share the latest plot twist in “The Americans” than to talk about how you’re finally getting around to reading “Middlemarch.” It’s more fun to discuss the baked-Alaska controversy on “The Great British Bake Off” than whether “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer deserved the Pulitzer Prize. Even if we aren’t all watching the same three networks anymore, we are all connected via video. Since my kids have left home, I watch more TV, and I look forward to it. TV takes all that imagination away.Īnd yet sometimes it’s great to just sit on the couch and surrender. When a character is described as tall with brown hair, a reader creates her own picture. Our brains have to work to translate the black squiggles on the page into words and then interpret the meaning and intent of those words. The act of physically turning a page creates a momentary pause for understanding to sink in. Reading is active watching TV is passive. It reduces stress, promotes comprehension and imagination, alleviates depression, helps you sleep and may contribute to preventing Alzheimer’s. Better even than listening to an audiobook or reading one on an e-reader. Of course, that study didn’t look at what happened if a child binge-watched four straight hours of Bert and Ernie and Big Bird.Īll the research says reading a book is good for you. Same with a child with a tendency for depression.Īnd in 2015, a study at the University of Maryland found that kids who watched “Sesame Street” as preschoolers were better prepared to learn when they entered kindergarten. A kid with aggressive tendencies might prefer watching television to being with other children. I finished the book with tears in my eyes and stood up feeling, well, great.īut recently another investigation by criminologists Joseph Schwartz, of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Kevin Beaver, of Florida State University, concluded that genetics has the greatest effect on how children react to TV. I was immersed in Nunez’s New York City, worrying about the grieving dog and the narrator’s pending eviction because of it, as well as her career and her future. It was wonderful and I loved it, but I needed to finish it, so I read the last half straight through. Research for Scotland? Not exactly.Ī few days later I had a library book due: The National Book Award winner “The Friend,” by Sigrid Nunez, about a woman mourning the death of her best friend who then inherits his enormous Great Dane. My house was dark around me except for the blue glow of the TV screen. I looked outside surprised to see the sun had set. My brain was fuzzy, but worse, I felt furtive and ashamed. When I stood up from the couch I felt sick, and it wasn’t just the cookies, popcorn and peanut butter crackers I’d scarfed down without noticing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |