GUILFORD — I work in a high school, and much of my day involves helping kids deal with the problems created by rumors that quickly get transformed into what are portrayed as “fact,” often becoming hurtful and certainly not constructive.
We adults now have developed our own version of daily drama.
The talking heads on cable and network news and in most of our newspapers look at polls and then speculate about what the data actually means. The polls become “fact” and the speculation (so-called “analysis”) then becomes more “fact.”
You'd think that after what happened during the recent presidential election we'd be done with this approach but, sadly, we are not.
The political pundits are still speculating based on the most recent polls and, it seems, many of us are still buying into this nonsense.
There's obviously too much money tied up in the polling business and the need to fill air time and space on the printed page.
I'm trying to wean myself off this harmful behavior, but it is hard. Wouldn't it be refreshing and much healthier for our country if the news media reported only real facts, absent poll data, and that our individual discussions were based on these real facts?
As others have asked: Are our intentions accurately measured by polls, or are our actions actually being driven by the speculation derived from polls?
Making change is hard work. I'm striving to learn from my mistakes during the past election, but it's like swimming upstream. I know others are joining me and I'm heartened by that.
Thank you ... and keep swimming!