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Front page news is usually not very good. That’s why it’s news. We don’t get very excited about good news, even rare good news about some who is trying to live out the Lord’s Prayer, about hearing about enemies who are being loved (probably not very many of those anyway) or instances of the Golden Rule, but mostly the local front page news is about shootings, car accidents, fires, various tragedies or so on. Usually not with that news, however, is news about those who are related to the individuals involved: parents of the shooters, siblings of the speeders, cousins of the arsonists. relatives of the rioters, about bystanders of the moment.

Think for a moment about some gang fight on the south side of somewhere. Who opens the door when the police knock? A young, newly widowed mother with two kids hanging on her apron who gets the message about the drive-by shooting. Think of the parents of the son or daughter on the honor roll now called to the mortuary to identify a body. Think of the grandparents who get the phone call from the parents. Think of the annual family gatherings now smaller than they used to be. Think of the whole web of neighbors, relatives, coworkers who now have a common grief, a mutual lament. Might have been war, an industrial accident, neighborhood gangs. Might have been anything, but the ripples of life don’t disappear when the echoes of the explosions die away. They never die away completely.  

For some, news is very important, but not for all, not for most of us, not for bystanders who are not affected by the news, other than the way it immeasurably shapes one’s thoughts, and most of us are of the world of bystanders. We just wait for another front page.