This one was written soon after the guake and tsuanami in Japan

Part of the deal when we bought the trailer was harboring the notion that we could use it for backup shelter after the earthquake. Ya need to justify the expense of such a purchase, for it really was intended for fun and frivolity, which is a total sin to Puritans like us. And fun is not an excuse for the discretionary spending of that which should instead be sitting in the retirement fund, losing value (these days).

 A roof, stove, heater, water tank, collection of old cans of tomato soup, and last but not by any means least, a toilet could all come in handy once the earthquake finally arrives. When we pictured in our minds the two of us, for those weeks after the quake while waiting for the government to rescue us, huddling over a meager campfire on the front lawn of our flattened home, boiling shoe leather for dinner, the purchase of the trailer seemed totally justified.

The inevitability of the earthquake, and the need for food and shelter following same, has taken on the same urgency as the requirement for a fallout shelter back in the day, and you don't want to be the only one in the neighborhood left unprepared after the mushroom cloud, or the BIG ONE. And of course you want to be well armed if it turns out that you are the only one in the neighborhood to be so prepared, for then you would have the need to repel boarders when you realize that no one else bothered to be prepared. Life post disaster figures to be a trial either way. Having the trailer could be a life saver.

So, I woke up the other morning in the trailer sitting beside the wreckage of our home. No, we weren't trying to survive after a disaster, but we did have the house bathrooms torn up, pending a much needed rebuild, and thus we were using the shower in the trailer each morning while getting ready for work. See…the plan came to fruition! Anyway, I turned on the radio to the overnight talk host, cause it is refreshing from time to time to listen to this guy, because he is so good at blaming everybody else for the travails of those folks who listen to all night talk radio. You know, like it's all Bush's fault, and I just love scapegoating and rationalization when I'm coping with my life’s tribulations, too.

The subject he presented to his listeners in this last hour of his show was, “how are you coping with the tsunami warning?” and that caught my attention. It was the first I had heard of the earthquake in Japan.

Post shower, I rushed into the house and turned on the TV, and there were those first videos of the wall of muddy, debris laden water and bobbing cars flowing across the rice paddies. The visual horror presented wouldn't soon go away. And I spent much of the following days riveted to the news coverage of the disaster.

It took me a while to figure it out. Oh, not the earthquake and tsunami. That was inevitable. And not the disappointing efforts by the folks in government over there, because I've come to expect little more from entrenched bureaucrats and other public servants. No, I'm thinking about the news coverage, and how happy this horrible event has made those folks.

I was doing it. I was watching those same videos over and over again, of the wave blasting through the town, fishing boats bobbing under the bridge while the voice over promo-ed the next clip for after the commercial. I listened to the experts from the anti-nuclear movement as they expounded on the coming meltdown, and with exulted joy exclaimed, “I told ya so!”  And I waited impatiently through the commercials for it all to begin again. I was hooked.

Finally, it dawned on me how my addiction was being manipulated by the news coverage. First I wondered why only anti-nuclear experts were featured, with their dire predictions of global contamination. Where was the balance, the advice from other experts who suggested that a 100 times increase in insignificant radiation exposure was still just an insignificant radiation exposure?

And then there was the video clip that was promo-ed to show the wave of water actually overtaking and swallowing that little group of running people, and how happy that seemed to make the talking heads, and how disappointed those heads sounded when the video ended without actually depicting the deaths of those desperate souls.

I guess I am actually that naive. I expected reporting, and got agenda, and a greedy exploitation of a monstrous disaster simply to garner higher ratings, and more advertising revenue. This disappointed me. I thought I was smarter than that.