It's a crisis if you do, it's a crisis if you don't.

I have become amused by the media creation of crises. Have you noticed that whichever way it goes, we're doomed?

For example, how long have the environmentalists been warning us about filling up our landfills? We'll have no earth left, they say, if we don't quit generating so much garbage. It's a crisis! But in recent months, the economy has been bad (another crisis), so people evidently have not been consuming as much. Landfills across the nation are laying off workers, cutting hours, and hiking fees. It's a crisis!

Same thing with the oil industry. Oil prices hit record highs a few months ago. It's a crisis! People will starve! But when they started coming down, guess what? The oil companies are hurting. Another crisis!

I say we all just take a deep breath and quit making everything into a crisis! We'll all be happier and worry less. But then again, will that create a crisis for the psychiatrists?

"Less trash, less cash for city." The Dallas Morning News; May 20, 2009; p. 1B.