Dear News Media,

The reason for this letter is to inform you that I have chosen to no longer support your business and have decided to reject your product. I believe you no longer speak for the people and are not worthy of power we have granted you and that your voice is not worthy of our attention. If you would allow me a moment of your time, I would be happy to explain my reasoning behind this decision.

First, let me congratulate you on the immense success, influence, and power you have gained in our nation. The most powerful force in America is not an elected official, it is you. You have the power to choose our heros and villians. You have the power to influence who we trust and who we doubt. You have the power to tell us who to laugh at and who to cry for. You have the power to influence a nation on what they should think, what they perceive as truth, and who they should love or fear, support or reject, embrace or rebel against.

As the over used quote goes, “With great power, comes great responsibility”. You have the power, but only because we have given it to you. A voice is only as powerful as the people who listen to it. So we must ask, is your voice worthy of our ears and our action?

Everyone listens to someone in their life. They allow them to speak and influence their decision making, their thought process, their priorities, and their outlook on the world. Parents speak into their children's lives for the sake of love. Friends speak into each others’ lives for the sake of the relationship. Teachers and mentors speak into students lives for the sake of the future. You speak into people's’ lives for the sake of… business. Every business survives on a product or service. As such, what product are you selling?

Infotainment. Entertainment based on current events and happenings. You take a nugget of truth and then craftily sculpt it to sell. What sells? Controversy, drama, shock, intrigue, exposed secrets, hidden agendas, fear, and excitement. Although the stories may be based on truth, truth doesn’t sell as well as embellished truth and fiction. So, you take the facts and you splice them, dice them, squeeze them, twist them, flip them, and amplify them until you have a sparkling money maker. I am not criticizing you for your hard work and expert craftsmanship. You have a business and as such, are trying to make a profitable product and excel at selling it to the masses. Basic business 101. The problem occurs however, when you pass that embellished and polished story along as the truth, and then people consume it as such.

When your words, articles, and programming are taken at face value, they have the power and ability to incite riots, protests, yelling matches, knee jerk reactions, fear, racism, isolation, and hatred. When your product is mistaken for truth, it becomes a lethal toxin that infiltrates our hearts and minds. A deadly poison that is released into our culture and community. A virus that turns friends, neighbors, coworkers, family, fellow citizens and countrymen, and the human population at large against each other. You are like a bully trying to make two friends fight in the school yard, just for the fun of watching. You are encouraging division, hatred, mistrust, fear, selfishness, and inequality.

“United we stand, divided we fall”. This nation is becoming more divided everyday. We are plunging down a dark void that only leads to ruin. The greatest threat to America does not come from an invading army, a terrorist act, or a foreign entity. Instead it is the threat and cancer within. It is the self destruction that will cripple this nation faster than anything else can. We are on a path of ultimate demise and you are the flag bearer leading the way.

I will not stand for it anymore. I am sick and tired of your tainted product and I am calling you out on it. I do not support your business or the values and ideology it broadcasts and I do not believe you have the best interests of anyone in mind but your own. I do not need you or your voice to tell me how to think, feel, or live. If going to cleanse my soul of your toxic waste, I must first stop allowing you to put it in my head. From here forward, I will not watch your programing, I will not read your articles, I will not listen to your broadcasts and I invite the rest of the nation to do the same.

If I don’t believe in you, what do I believe in?

I believe America is the greatest nation on earth and we are all truly blessed to be here. I believe this nation was founded on hard work, freedom, and unity. We were born into this freedom, but we must choose to live in it every day. We must choose to not enslave ourselves to hate, fear, selfishness,divisiveness, and self entitlement. We must not use our strengths to crush others, but to lift them up. We must not coast on the victories of the past or get bogged down by our previous failures. History is set in stone, but today is in our hands and ready for sculpting.

We must forge a bright future by investing in our present, with selflessness and service toward our fellow man. We must not use race, religion, or gender as crutches, cop-outs, or conduits for hate, privilege, or exclusion.

I believe that every single life matters. I believe this fact should not be leveraged for destructive behavior or self centered acts. Instead, that fact should motivate us to own up and accept responsibility for our own actions against others and openly accept the repercussions of the choices we make, before ever pointing a convicting finger. I believe that it is worthless to try and change the world, until we can honestly address the shortcomings and selfish motivations within ourselves first.

If we all lived in this way, there would be no need for rules because we would all be acting on our neighbors best interest. Restrictions, boundaries, and guidelines would all be a thing of the past because the actions that inspire their need would not happen in the first place. But...we are not there yet. So as we strive toward this future, we must respect and honor the authorities, laws, and regulations that have been put in place to keep freedom alive when love is not a motivating factor. The systems put in place to protect ourselves and others from the times decisions are made without due regard for the lives, safety, and best interests of others.

Like every Disney sports movie ever made, we must learn to throw out our misconceptions, learn to love and respect one another, and play this life as a team. We must be a nation unified in love. Love that starts with all our fingers pointed squarely at ourselves.

What does that look like? Here’s how a very intelligent author put it:

“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.”

To a life ruled by news media and destructive values, I am out. To living a life guided by love and unity, I am in.