I sometimes find the news business to be all-consuming.
I would spend a busy day and night churning out the news, and then I would get home and fire up the computer looking for entertainment. What would be that form of entertainment, usually?
Why, what else? Watching the news. I can never get a break from it.
After watching live streams from places like New York, Detroit and elsewhere, I have come to one conclusion - a lot of places have it worse than what we have it here.
When I hear some local person moan about this city's problems and so on, I have to say "are you kidding? We have it great! Just look at Detroit!"
Here is a mishmash of my thoughts about these other communities and what they have been going through.
First - there has been plenty of news about the bankruptcy in Detroit.
When I tuned in to the live news streams from Detroit on the day of the announcement, the reporters there looked humiliated, as if this was the biggest black mark ever for the place. And this is a place that has had more than its share of low points: the 1967 riots, crime, the flight of its residents to the suburbs, Kwame Kilpatrick's troubles and so on. This news even ranks below the time the Detroit Lions went 0-16.
Speaking of sports - we've been hearing talk about how the Detroit Red Wings are getting a brand new, $650 million arena project in Detroit. This is being paid for with $284 million in tax dollars.
How Detroit can build fancy arenas with a city in bankruptcy, I don't know. Then again, people must be looking at this and saying "this is why they went bankrupt to begin with."
Second - can you believe this Anthony Weiner nonsense in New York?
That's that candidate for mayor who had been sexting, ahem, pictures of himself to women. (I'll leave it to your imagination what he was wearing.)
What is a real head-scratcher is why this guy even entered the race in the first place. This is the same guy who had to resign from Congress some time ago over the same sort of thing. Everyone knew about Weiner's pervert past, and yet he was leading in all the polls.
That is, until this latest incident. Now, his campaign is in total chaos. His campaign manager has quit, and maybe by the time you read this, Weiner will have, too.
A particular head-scratcher is that you had not only one, but two scandal-plagued politicians-in-trouble running in New York. Running for comptroller is none other than Eliot Spitzer, the former governor, who left office in disgrace for paying for prostitutes. It was a big, big scandal. Yet here he is, back from the crypt, trying to get elected. What's more, it looks like a lot of people are actually going to vote for this guy and that he's going to win the race!
Toronto's Rob Ford looks pretty good now in comparison to all this total nonsense, doesn't he?
Third - speaking of Toronto, it's looks like the chief of police has lots of explaining to do in the days to come after a teenaged boy brandishing a knife on a streetcar in the city was shot nine times and killed by police.
The shooting has prompted outrage and marching in the streets in Toronto. It also follows on the heels of several other shooting incidents in that city - including the infamous Eaton Centre shooting that killed two people, and the shooting at a barbecue in Scarborough in which two people died and another shooting death earlier this year outside Yorkdale Mall.
In Toronto, shootings and killings have been happening for months on end. The place is awash with violence.
Aren't you glad you live here instead of there?
Wait a minute. According to Statistics Canada's latest Crime Severity Index, it's actually North Battleford that is the worst for crime in Canada for the fourth year in a row.
I know we had that drive-by shooting recently, but still, something doesn't add up. Expect Statistics Canada to come out with numbers claiming Toronto's sports teams are actually good, soon.
Fourth - natural disasters have very much dominated the news this year, such as the tornadoes in Oklahoma and the floods that ravaged southern Alberta, including the city of Calgary.
I'm sure many couldn't believe Calgary was actually able to pull off hosting the Calgary Stampede held just a couple of weeks after the Stampede Park grounds were completely under water.
Many other places would have come up with excuses about "other priorities," or how it would have been too difficult, and would have thrown in the towel.
What happened in Calgary, though, really did turn out to be a defining moment for the city.
For Calgary, the rallying cry was that the Stampede would go on "Come Hell or High Water." As a result, the Stampede became a symbol of the city's resiliency in the face of adversity.
It provided a much needed morale boost, helping spur on the recovery efforts going on in the rest of the city. The Stampede also served to get Calgary back on its feet again.
That whole "Come Hell or High Water" attitude with the Calgary Stampede is a lesson for all of us. This whole attitude of people not allowing natural disasters or weather conditions to get in the way of what you want to accomplish is a positive example other organizers, and other communities, should follow as well.
Oh, I'm not thinking of any communities in particular, but still, it's a good example to follow.
