Listening to the news

While reading about Iran's crackdown on the protests, I am listening to NPR discussing the South Carolina governor's public morality issue (see below). Somehow, the juxtaposition seems to put things in better context. While people in Iran face life-and-death decisions, we in the U.S. seem to be focused on "smaller" issues. I still wonder if the news is more of a distraction than good information, while I remain fascinated by it. Forgiveness has now been mentioned on the air, so I'm starting to think of what God thinks of all this. He directs us to think on admirable things, but the news makes this difficult. Perhaps the only admirable thing in all this is God's willingness to forgive it all.