The other day I found myself having an overwhelming compulsion to find some spot as far away from radio, television, newspapers, cell phones, the Internet, and all the other devices and media as I could find. I finally decided simply to take a walk into my pasture and along the creek which runs through our property. For an hour I walked without the constant cacophony of modern life. I could hear the bluebirds, the robins, and even a wild turkey or two. The leaves just budding on the trees made a gentle, peaceful sound in the wind. The creek itself, swollen from the week’s downpours, had a quiet roar that soothed my soul.

It seems to me that since 9/11 our lives have been filled with the sounds and images of fear. We’re constantly told about the dangers of terrorism and of all the people around the world who hate us and want to harm us. When other humans aren’t out to destroy us there’s always Nature. Spring brings with it tornado sirens, severe thunderstorm warnings, and photographs of the destruction these wreak on our friends and neighbors, if not on us.

Weathermen scream at us to take cover. Homeland Security officials tell us to remain ever vigilant. Treasury officials tell us that unless we approve something that they want to do, the economy will collapse and all of us will be on welfare. And now the CDC tells us to be “concerned” but not panic and that the new H1N1 influenza is highly contagious and that more people will contract it and some will die. Talk radio warns us of the danger of impending socialism and the end of the American way of life.

You cannot spend any time away from all of the dire warnings of doom and gloom these days, unless you isolate yourself totally from the world at large. To tell the truth, I’m just sick of it all. I’m tired of double-speak, of politicians saying something foolish and then re-interpreting what they say later, of public officials telling us to be vigilant and concerned over and over but then admonishing us not to panic. At what point does all the fear-mongering begin to be worse than the things we’re supposed to be afraid of?

I’ve been very interested over the past few months that traditional media are having an increasingly hard time economically. Is this really surprising? How many of us want to pay for a newspaper in which all of the stories are frightening? Who wants to turn on the television to see pictures of frightened people wearing masks as they walk into church on Sunday? Who wants to listen to the radio when all that you can hear are “talking heads” telling us that the world is going to collapse?

When I was a small child at Public School 104 in New York, the teachers, if they found students fighting (a frequent occurrence), would call a “timeout.” All of the fighters were sent to different rooms where we had to sit for a while, do our lessons and calm down. After we had calmed down, we were allowed to return to class. It was a very effective technique.

I think that all of us now need a “timeout.” I think that each of us needs a few hours a week when we don’t have to be on the guard for terrorists, frightened of catching H1N1, worrying that we’ll be laid off or that the federal government has a secret Stalinist plan it’s just waiting to unleash.

Everybody needs to take a deep breath and realize that life isn’t so bad, that the risks we face, for the most part, are really improbable, and that we weren’t put on Earth to spend our entire lives frightened and huddling in a “safe room” somewhere. Of course, I’m not saying not to take cover when there’s a tornado around. I’m just saying that when the sky is clear and the sun is shining, and you haven’t been laid off and you’re not showing symptoms of any disease (a state most of us are fortunate enough to be in most of the time), take a few minutes, shrug off your fears and worries, look around at God’s creations and realize that life is good.

Maybe if the news media would spend a little time remembering this and telling us all the good things that are happening in the world, instead of all the bad, they’d have more people in their audience. And we’d all be a great deal happier.

— Mike Hoeflich, a distinguished professor in the Kansas University School of Law, writes a regular column for the Journal-World.