Eclipse mania hides more than the sun
By Mark Scheinbaum
MIAMI (Aug. 21) – I hope thousands of young people develop an interest in science, space, the stars, physics, and the meaning of life this week while participating in the media hype and frenzy of a solar eclipse.
It has been 38 years since most folks old enough to have had the chance, actually did have the chance to have a chance……you get the idea.
But I sort of wondered what could be achieved if someone computed that every 38 minutes, not every 38 years someone is shot, or mugged, or dies of cancer, or shoots poisons into their veins. Just a stupid anti-media thought I guess. The number 38 did not really work out in my research, so I’ll just stick to the facts.
The Children’s Defense Fund took a look at some numbers last year just in the USA, but I think they are a good point of comparison and discussion for many of the eclipse groupies of any nationality.
Millions will have tailgate parties and swig some brewskies while the moon does what it has always done, without your permission thank you, every once in awhile—blotting out the sun, you will say that even if you missed Woodstock, well, you made it to the Eclipse. As described in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court this can A)freak folks out and B) serve as the ultimate parlor trick on cue.
Oh, did I mention that four children each day are killed by abuse or neglect?
Little towns of a few hundred people will sell T Shirts and bumper stickers to thousands of visitors seeking a good eclipse view.
On average six children or teenagers commit suicide each day.
Even if it is rainy or cloudy, no harm, no foul, a party is a party and you tried to see the 100 per cent eclipse in person.
In the year 2016 with all the gifts of medical science, two mothers die each day from complications of childbirth.
A nation will probably spend more money on special sunglasses they will toss in the garbage than on donating something to prevent noneclipse related blindness, but no matter, millions will be ripped off by phony glasses manufactured by crooks.
Seven children or teens are likely to be killed by guns in the USA tomorrow.
Some folks will flock to a hamlet in Kentucky in hopes that the little green men who allegedly visited the town 62 years ago will return to see the eclipse and perhaps buy green Slurpees,
Typically, 167 children will be arrested today for allegedly committing a violent crime.
ABC-TV News will run clips from 38 years ago of my old colleague Frank Reynolds talking about the “next” eclipse, and correspondents from an organization with dwindling bureaus and dwindling news budgets will make sure each eclipse town, ad nausea, will have its own correspondent.
Just after the start of this new school year, 2,857 US high school students will drop out of school each and every day, and 12,816 public school students will be suspended for one reason or another.
And while you gaze at the moon and the sun, view it through your selfie camera, decide which civil war statues are historic and which are racist, and who really knows why we need documentaries on the anniversary of the death of Lady Di—just take a moment to remember that today, tomorrow, and the next day….and every day, 65 babies will die before their first birthday cake.
Ummm. Maybe the Eclipse Mania is really a good thing. It serves as a reminder and a surrogate for a total eclipse of the brain.
Mark Scheinbaum is managing director at Shearson Financial Services LLC, and adjunct professor of international relations at Florida International University. His opinions are his own. MScheinbaum@Shearsonllc.com
