Stephen Stafford is My Hero
I stopped watching the news a long time ago; it’s terrible. I mean… there’s no other way to put it. If I’m not being fed partisan politics, I’m being given filler stories (i.e. “the world’s largest or most popular dog”) or scare stories (i.e. “tune in at 6 to find out what foods at the grocery store can, and WILL, kill you”). It’s just aweful.
And then I stumble onto this blog article about Stephen Stafford. And that’s just the thing, it’s not on the news. I mean, this kid’s story is just about NOWHERE on the national news. Seriously, where is his 15 minutes? 30 minutes? Even his 10 minutes on Oprah (equivalent to about 5 hours of television exposure elsewhere… do the math).
The fact alone that he’s a motivational speaker at age 13 is newsworthy enough. But you add to that him going to college at 13, triple majoring, and getting ready to go to med school, and he’s phenomenal. Most REGULAR college students can’t do that.
So where is his story? Well, as much to blame as is the news, I’m going to blame you, the reader. Us, the community. If we’re not demanding more stories like Stephen Stafford be shown, then what really do we want?
KRS-One once said “the people really have the government they want. If they were dissatisfied, they’d be out rebelling right now.” Let’s substitute “government” for “news.”
Let’s face it. The only consistently positive coverage we’ve seen of Black people on the news as of late is people getting rescued from rubble in Haiti. And even that momentum has changed with the news coverage of the missionaries arrested for attempted trafficking.
So what can we do? No one ever writes to their news station. I’m going to write to my television stations in Washington, D.C. and demand for more coverage of stories like Stephen Stafford. Stay tuned for a draft letter that YOU can send to your TV stations.
