Television brings usrioting in a controlled

environment, the familyroom along with

breakfast, volume down wewatch them,

edited with a commentarythat makes it

seem well organized, acity here, a city

there, dark scenesbacklit with buildings

blazing, dancing figuresmoving to the beat

of sirens and shouting.It’s quite a display

for early in the day, butlike drivers passing

a car wreck we feelcompelled to slow

down to watch – it’ssomething we are

used to, over the yearsthese shows have

become part of ournational climate, cities

burning, hysteria playedout over and over

to the point that weexpect them, watch

them, say a few thingsabout them, then

we do nothing to dealwith them and their

cause. Right now, theyplay quite well in our

plagued world with thevirus running riot

across out TV screens,well edited with

commentary enough to makethings seem

almost organized – andthere we are in

our cars, in our lanesgoing by, getting

a brief glimpse of thecar wreck we make

of our world.