This is becoming "the quote of the year" at the Bethard residence. Another hub also relates to this with the request for the return of moratoriums on commercials about alcohol, lawyers and medications just to mention a few. Most of the time, my best friend is very tolerant of my ranting and ravings, most of the time he agrees and adds his own opinions and observations, however, get into the middle of a baseball game with a discussion on the commercials and well…you can read between the lines on that I am sure!

The reason for the disapproval is due to the fact that Baby Girl is home as we prepare for our return to our heart home. Now, my best friend and I have been married twenty-seven years. Do you think he hands me the TV remote control? Ever? Just let his ‘punkin’ be sitting on the sofa though… I’m not fussing; but it has been an education, to say the least. We got satellite to get off the commercial television track. Now we watch NCIS and Warehouse 13, both of which my David and I enjoy.

Katie loves House. This is something I wish no one would watch. I am of the opinion that as the saying goes, “you are what you eat” then the same axiom applies to “you are what you watch.” This show depicts a brilliant diagnostician that is able to stay in the medical field and even in the same hospital without being responsible for his own actions! Watching this show as a healthcare professional really upsets me. I resent the implication that this type of character is being presented as acceptable by the medical community. The “straw that broke” came this week as we watched the character fake having cancer so he could go to Boston for the “cool drugs” that would be injected into his brain and get him high. When confronted with his deception by his peers the character answered “I was curious what it would feel like, OK?”

The discussion at our house (no correlation intended) at the end of the show was passionate but short lived. Baby Girl is of the opinion “It's not real, Mom!” (as if I were unaware of that fact) and my David agrees but says “Most of the people who are watching this mess are not delving into it on that level, Boo, you mustn’t let it upset you” (as if I were about to go off the deep end…OK maybe I was pacing and waving my arms a bit but this really got to me!)

It is not just the show, it has to do with the way we have allowed ourselves to be lulled into the opinion that it is acceptable. Having a TV hero such as the one on House is just sad. The character is a drug addict, an antisocial, depressed and angry physician who has chosen to separate himself from the rest of humanity and who blatantly furthers his own ego fueling trips that a correct diagnosis gives him.

The commercials of today are also adding to the brainwashing and magical spell of “It's not real, Mom” mentality by suggesting that if you are an artist, a real fan, a witty pick up man then it is only because of the brand of alcohol you consume. Some of the other commercials that are really far out there show a confused adult lost in a bowling alley in one scene and amazingly restored to full function with just a pill. I especially disapprove of the upcoming season of the favorite biker show. I wanted to hurl at the quote from the gorgeous actress who did NOT look as if she had been rode hard and put up wet as she tells another member of the gang “You love the man, you learn to love the club.” Biker gangs, people, are NOT clubs. I don’t care how many yuppies get on a bike and pretend to be a bad a--, you have not got a clue.

Lately, the happenings in our country and indeed, the world, are not only disturbing but beginning to frighten me. America is a sleeping giant, this has been well proven but it is past time that Americans not just awaken but LOOK an then ACT! At the risk of sounding like a throwback to another era, the advertising corporations and the popular Hollywood television shows are the ones who are brainwashing us, our children and our grandchildren. There are many who are saying it is the present regime; I would have to debate it is ourselves who have changed enough to allow such a regime to take hold of our country.

If we rose up and demanded that things changed, it would change. It does not have to come as a result of bloodshed or war or riots. All it would take is a flood of letters, emails, petitions to the white house, our state representatives and the sanity would return to America. I say “all it would take” as if it would be easy. It would not be easy. It would not be instant, it would not happen without great difficulty. That does not mean it i impossible or not worth the effort! It means we have to do it. And doing something we are afraid of is the hardest thing of all.

All I want to say is; I disapprove.

I hope, I pray, I keep waiting to hear that I am not the only one.