Prize winners

I was flipping through channels looking for something to watch when I came across a funniest video show.  I remember when I found them hilarious.

Tonight I noticed they are mostly pretty awful examples of dangerous and mean spirited tricks that could have potentially harmed someone. Not the accidental videos of the past. Tonight it was people tying firecrackers to the legs of unsuspecting people, refrigerator doors falling off and causing an old man to tumble across the room and fall hard, and a young boy terrorized by his mother making him believe he would be arrested for bringing his glass from the restaurant where they had been eating. The last one did win the big prize, but . . .

I remember a few years ago when some talk show host encouraged people to give their children awful gifts and video the results. How hard is it to make children feel bad and cry?

Perhaps Trump really does represent America. A country where people simply react or go for that momentary instant of being noticed at any cost and anyone's expense.

When did kindness and consideration become the object of weakness and scorn? When did a good education equate with simply making money? When did we decide to let applause designate the right or wrongness of our actions?