We worship money - we worship youth - we worship money

I was listening to NPR this morning on the way to work and heard something I had never heard before. Ted Koppel is set to leave the show Nightline and I guess the producer for the show is set to leave too. We had always known that the popular (read "all") news media is run by advertising. In fact, the news in the United States is not here to inform - it is here to make money. As soon as it stops making money it will go away. This producer mentioned that advertisers do not pay to attract viewers that are not in the 18-49 year old category. He said sometimes they get paid for 52 year olds, but not all that often. So if you are 0-17 or 50-100 you are not sought after by the advertisers. That's okay....to a point.

What we then have is all of the programming on the airwaves geared towards the 18-49 crowd. I am 35 so I am in the sweet spot of this programming. But when I am 50 or 60 (if I ever get there) I will not be. I will be deemed expendable by big business and their money will go elsewhere. Does that make me upset? Only on this level: the worship of youth (which is really the worship of money) is alive and well today. We shrug our shoulders and find that if you are such and such an age you are less attractive and less likely to be noticed. Can you hear the apathy? Can you hear the shoulder shrugs?

This is indicative of society as a whole. In ever increasing measure we need to entrust ourselves to the One who judges justly. For we will find no justice here with our empty pockets and our wrinkles that leave our brows permanently furrowed.