By Mary Powell

I recently made a comment that I do not watch television and was nearly laughed out of the room. I have become so disgusted with television due to the vulgarities, nudity, lack of serious programming and the type of content matter they broadcast that I just don’t watch it any more.

Okay, I will concede that I occasionally watch something on PBS, like the Jane Austen Series or one of the lovely mystery programs that are on, but in the past year, I think the longest I watched television was when Prince William married Catherine Middleton. To add my total viewing up, I can safely say I watched maybe 200 hours and that is stretching it.

I was asked how do I stay informed and where I get my news if I don’t watch television. Well, I do listen to several different radio stations, I listen to Coffee Talk on 910 KINA most mornings and Kansas Public Radio. I get my news from various sources on the internet, to compare and contrast the headlines. After reading sources from the left, right and otherwise, I form my own opinions. I am attacked for my conservative opinion, my libertarian views and sometimes offend my conservative friends as well when I say, I am anti- abortion but I also understand we need to have abortion providers because people are human and if we don’t have doctors doing the work, there will be coat-hanger abortions in the alleyways. Sounds sort of graphic, doesn’t it? You can imagine that sight just by reading it can’t you? Graphic, disgusting and downright horrific. See, you don’t have to see it on television to imagine what is happening.

Whatever happened to television where you heard noises but didn’t actually see the rape? What happened to using shadows to see the crime? What happened to a fleeting shot at the bed, two people lying there and the next scene they are lying there smoking a cigarette? OOPS, forgot, cigarette smoking is a no-no on television now. But you CAN watch a rape, murder, consenting sex and the like on the television. It’s no wonder people haven’t an imagination and are not creative, they have been brainwashed to watch trash on television.

So what is a person to do if they don’t watch television?

I read a lot. I read classical literature, magazines on my favorite subjects; I even re-read my old college books. I study writing, the styles the various genres and I am quite entertained by reading Shakespeare in the old English. Once you understand that style, you realize how witty William really was. I also enjoy nature by taking walks, gardening and observing people in stores, malls and wherever I may be. I get enough entertainment without television and I have one advantage over everyone else, I don’t have a cable or satellite bill to deal with either!

 

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