Society needs to reexamine cultural values
by Annette Germinario, reporter

    It seems like there are more slow news days lately.

    One memorable story of late is about a guy in Phoenix, Ariz., who survived a five-inch nail impalement to the head.

    An August 29, 2001, a CNN story lead stated, “Construction worker Christian Turner left the hospital Tuesday with evidence that he got nailed on the job.”

    Now this situation is amazing. If the nail had entered his cheek one centimeter off in any other direction, he would have been nailed to death or, worse, survived as a severely afflicted nailing victim.

    Is this not a lucky man? Yet, what this man said about the incident is a sad statement about our culture’s values.

    “Turner feels his luck is so good that he should have bought a ticket to last week’s huge lottery drawing,” the CNN report continued.

    Now if that’s not the statement of a guy who’s apologizing for being an underachiever, I don’t know what is.

    Where is our society heading with multitasking taking over our lives?

    Here’s another example of how progress has not afforded us more leisure time, but instead has accustomed us to doing more things at once.

    I know a dedicated attorney in Denver who had to be forcibly relieved of her briefs while she was in labor. How consuming a case was it that she needed those documents as a focal point?

    I don’t know that Turner was so distracted by what numbers to play while he was operating his Bobcat that he didn’t duck. It is also plausible in this case to suspect that he added surveying the view to his Bobcat and number picking activities.

    Nevertheless, Turner was still darned lucky considering that slim one-centimeter wiggle room factor.

Giving media coverage to a miraculous survival story is one thing; doing the same to further our standard of how we cannot be satisfied with our time, talent or resources (or more likely the quest for power, possessions and great abs) is another.

    Yes, I’m taking Turner to task for reckless representation of Americans. It wasn’t enough that he got lucky with his life.

    Our culture is so busy that we are suffering from common sense drain. It virtually oozes from our pores. This lack of common sense is evident in the enactment of stiffer laws with heftier fines for not wearing seat belts or using child restraints, drinking and driving or transporting humans in the back of a pickup. Next up, your cell phone.

    Like I said ... when I finally found a spare moment to catch up on current events, it was a slow news day.