Home is where the news is

We live in an oasis, otherwise known as Bloomington. While we’re here in our fabulous bubble, we read the newspaper, watch the news or hear about current events through the grapevine.

Most of the time, we interact with the news only as outside observers.

We were sympathetic when we heard about the plane crash in Buffalo, N.Y. We were inspired when we watched the heroism that transpired when a doomed plane landed safely in the Hudson River. We were skeptical when a single mother of six gave birth to octuplets. And we were disgusted when we read that an engaged medical school student could actually be a perverted murderer.

Headlines affect us, but we usually don’t have to live with them here in Bloomington. We’re lucky to be living somewhere that allows us to choose how we react to headlines and current events – rather than being part of them.

Next week I will be back at my parents’ house in a suburb of Detroit: land of the plummeting economy, home of the unemployed.

Chrysler just declared bankruptcy, and the whole state is feeling the worst effects of the nation’s recession. My friends’ parents are unemployed, my parents’ house has depreciated in value, and many of the once-successful neighborhood businesses don’t stand a chance at survival.

I’m about to go home to the saddest state in the country. I will watch as an anchor on CNN reports about my state from a cozy studio in Atlanta. I will read about Chrysler’s bankruptcy in Time. Residents of the other 49 states will read the same article and will likely feel the same way we feel here in Bloomington: sympathetic – not empathetic.

People think they know about Detroit because they watched the movie “8 Mile.” The flick starring Eminem came out in 2002. That was before the auto industry started messing around with serial layoffs leaving so many Detroit residents jobless.

If Detroit was a scary place in 2002, imagine what it’s like now.

Actually, I can’t even tell you what it’s like now because I rarely find a legitimate reason to make the trip to one of the saddest cities in the nation. If I want to be sad I’ll watch the news – not drive through it.

As the semester comes to a close, we pack up our belongings and head home. For those who are already from Bloomington, the transition probably isn’t hard.

The news will continue to be delivered to people who can read top stories in the newspaper and then move on to the crossword puzzle.

Of course, it’s not to say that Bloomington is immune from newsworthy events. At any moment something crazy could happen and national news outlets would be on the scene within hours.

But in the meantime, Bloomington is still the bubble we know and love. The safe, exciting, education-focused town we fell in love with when we visited with our parents senior year of high school.

It’s a place I will miss over the summer – along with people I love even more than this town.