I've got to stop reading the news. I can't stand it. It's too depressing. I quit watching it on television a long time ago, after I was confronted by a gruesome crime scene image, with no warning, one too many times. But there are days when even the newspaper or the on line news makes me want to scream.

Take today for example. As everyone knows, there was a terrible tragedy involving the coastlines of numerous countries as a tidal wave crashed ashore with no warning. Over 21,000 people are dead. That's more people than live in my town. In fact, if you add the population of my current town and the town where I used to live, Gardner, MA, that would be just a little more than the number of people who have died so far. They're just gone - here today, gone tomorrow: men, women, children, tourists, natives, old people. Now villages are smashed to bits, there's no fresh water, the International Red Cross is worried about water borne diseases, there's no dry ground in which to bury the dead.

Thankfully, that was at least "the top story". But you want to know what the second "top story" was?.....

You'd think it would be how to help these people, they way it was when hurricaines hit Florida so many times. You'd think there'd be links all over the place to the Red Cross or Red Crescent, little blurbs about "how to donate" or "what help is most urgently needed" or whatever...instead of a little statement saying "Bush sends his regrets" and "The U.S. will send aid"

No, the next big news is the airline snafu over the holidays. That's right. With all the political and social reprecussions of a natural disaster that big, well, nobody's interested in that in the American Media. But we need to cover the fact that Comair had a "meltdown" of procedures, people's flights were cancelled, their bags of gifts and luggage didn't get where they were going.....and we have pages and pages of analysis about "What went wrong?" And, my favorite thing of all, photos of people in coats costing over $100, carrying handbags worth more than I make in a week, desperate to be reunited with gifts that I can't imagine anybody really needing, and, in some cases, even wanting, whining and crying "Christmas was ruined! Stop the presses! Hold the phone! We want somebody held RESPONSIBLE."

Well, okay, I live in this country, and I have all my life. That part doesn't surprise me. It doesn't thrill me, but it doesn't shock me. People do think that they have a God given right to be where they want to be on the day they want to be there, regardless of the weather, regardless of anything. And this is a human vice, not an American one. After all, didn't Mussolini come to power promising that the trains would run on time?

So, naturally, everyone turns to the corporate fat cats who run the airlines involved...this one, I guess is Delta, and American seems to have come out poorly on customer service this holiday season too. Now these airlines have been in bankruptcy protection - not that that did anything to the salaries of the CEO's and executives. Nor is that any kind of a black mark against them, it seems. You can run your company into bankruptcy, and, if you are running an airline, the government will just bail you out or let you do Chapter 11 - no big deal. But what I always assumed these overfed corporate pigs with golden parachutes strapped to their backs were getting paid for was to take this kind of heat. To take responsibility when things go wrong in their companies.

Not that I think that dude from Ford ( whose name I can't recall) is any kind of saint or anything. But, eventually, after all those Goodyear tires exploded a few years ago, he got on t.v. in his pinstiped suit in front of his corporate logo and said, "Look, this is a problem, we're trying to fix it, and I'm sorry. We care about our customers. Thanks for listening".

Talk is cheap, of course. But here's the part that really made me feel like screaming. The Big Men of these airlines didn't take any kind of responsibility. Instead they blamed their employees for calling out sick! Now THAT'S leadership!

These employees work as mechanics, ticket agents, etc, whatever. They don't have a golden parachute. They're facing pay cuts- again. They just took a pay cut to keep their jobs. They've been hearing over and over again about how "the company has to look at the bottom line" and "the needs of the company have changed". They've listened. They've learned.

Now, it's Christmas. They feel like they have the same God given right to be where they want to be on the day they want to be there as the people with the thousand dollar luggage. Our society has told that to people and they feel that way. They have sick time. They're entitled to it. They may even lose it if they don't use it by the end of the year. Do they say to themselves, "Heck, if I call out sick, it might really hose up the works and keep some little dude from seein' his grandma this Christmas. Yeah, I know I came in when I had the stomach flu in order to save this day to be with my family, but, ya know what? Me going to work is for the greater good" Or even: "Well, I'm really not sick. It would be wrong for me to take the time".

Some people, maybe, used to feel that way. Some companies, believe it or not, used to reward such things as perfect attendance - I mean monetarily, not with a little $2 plague at an awards breakfast everybody is sleeping through anyway. The companies used to also reward loyalty by promoting from within, on merritt. It used to be possible to work one's way to the top.

But now the "rank and file" have listened to all this corporate blah, blah, blah and they've learned. They've learned to say, "Lets see, I'm the CEO of the Smith Household. We're facing budget cuts in the next quarter due to me having to take pay cut to keep my job. I'm gonna get shareholder disatisfaction if I don't show up for Mrs. Smith's Christmas dinner. The company owes me this day. It's mine, fair and square by the rules, so by God, I'm gonna take it. And if some yuppy puppy winds up suffering for it, well, that's not my problem."

It's finally happening folks. All that "Me, me, me" the baby boomers kept yammering away about...it's all coming back, settling down, like chickens coming home to roost. Note to CEO Mile High: You can't run anything without a certain amount of good faith and good will. Love may not be what makes the world go around, but - shocking news - money or the bottom line doesn't either. The constant focus on the bottom line and the needs of the people who have the money invested over the people who do the work is starting to break down.

And a little compassion wouldn't kill any of these people, either.