USA Today

Whenever I travel through an airport in North America, I purchase the one essential, required reading material needed to understand the States: USA Today. I turn to the section called Across The USA—News from Every State. In its brief news items, one can trace the great themes and issues of the country.

In the most recent issue I read from May 26th, the following appears:
--in Indianapolis, the state supreme court awarded compensation to two black women fired from their jobs because of race;
--in Louisiana, an eighth grader shot himself after shooting at his teacher;
--in Mississippi, Madison county is spending money to clean up its voter registration rolls;
--in Oregon, a recently released inmate is filing a federal lawsuit claiming his civil rights were violated because he was forced to attend daily religious services.

It’s all right there: race, guns, money in politics, religion and the law. Ah yes, what a country, what a paper!

I admit, without reservation or hesitation, Canadian news is boring in comparison. In choosing between two countries with a free press, which do you choose? News junkies ought to head south, but if you believe no news is good news, Canada calls.