Freedom Means I Don't Have to Care

My sister made me my favorite
kitchen aprons one year for
Christmas. I cherish them much more
than the coffee gift cards of the past.

Polls asking when radio stations should begin playing Christmas music abound. Opinions regarding Black Friday sales beginning on Thursday are being solicited via every social media outlet known to mankind. I have been doing my best to avoid these debates. Not because I have a heated opinion one way or the other, but rather because the topics or irrelevant and frivolous.

Ask me what I think about managed health care or immigration policies. Then make sure the world, especially my representatives, know where my peers and I stand on these issues. But please don't waste my time with ridiculous opinion polls and news features on issues that serve no purpose other than to distract and entertain the general public.

As Americans, we are privileged to enjoy freedoms and opportunities others envy. As a lifelong citizen born in New Jersey, I hereby exercise my freedoms in regards to these inane topics.

On the topic of when to begin playing Christmas music on the radio, I don't care. Start November 1. Play it in February. Have Christmas music scheduled every Saturday all year long. It doesn't matter to me, Mr. Radio Station Guy, what you decide. We live in a free country. If I don't like the music, I can change the station. Better yet, I can stop listening to the antiquated radio altogether and rely on my collection of downloads and the personalized Internet "radio station" I created several years ago.

In regards to stores offering ten-minute-only, door-busting Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving, I don't care. Offer your best deals of the year all day long on Thanksgiving, if that's what you want to do. I won't be there. I've never shopped on Black Friday and I certainly don't intend to shop on Thanksgiving. I'll be enjoying great homemade cuisine and making lasting memories with my children, nieces and nephews. I feel no loss at missing the big blowout deals offered on the few days off we all have together. I can shop another time. Better yet, I can make the majority of my gifts this year. Homemade gifts are more meaningful, anyway.

Now that we've got the non-issues out of the way, wouldn't it be great if our media spent more time on important problems? Oh, right. Freedom. News outlets are as free to cover and report on whatever they deem most important to their readers as I am to not consume their content.

Micki Bare, mother of three, wife, daughter & writer is the author of Thurston T. Turtle children's books. 

Email: mickibare (at) gmail.com

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Micki Bare's Weekly Column (Arkansas News Bureau)