The other day, I was walking on sunshine.

With the warm spring air caressing my face and the songbirds singing their melodies into my ears, I took a deep breath and I thought, “Ah, all was right with the world!”

Then I sat down before dinner to watch the TV news, and within five minutes ABC had rained on my parade, scared away my birds, and choked the air right out of me.

Anchorman David Muir began by reporting an active shooter had shot 10 people at a grocery store in Colorado. He then shifted to the chaos in Miami where crowds of young adults were partying and defying curfew orders. Next was the dilemma in Texas where 800 migrant minors were being housed in small quarters and the influx of more illegals coming into the U.S. was not expected to end anytime soon.

A spokesman said President Biden was to be blamed for not managing the situation in Texas. Two minutes later, another spokesman continued the blame on Donald Trump for the insurrection at the Capitol building in January.

Following a commercial, Muir reported that killer snowstorms and tornadoes were expected to destroy homes in the Midwest. Then, ABC showed a video of a man carrying a 2-year-old child inside an elephant cage in the San Diego Zoo. Fortunately, the idiot and the boy were able to escape.

I turned off the TV and looked out the window and saw a glimpse of the gorgeous setting sun gleaming across the horizon. I thought of that old expression. “What on God’s green earth is going on?”

I know why the TV news decides to report the bad things first. Having taken a few journalism classes back in the day, the first principle followed by all the networks is, “If it bleeds, it leads.” Violence, rape, murder, natural catastrophes that scare the bejesus out of us and represent the despicable immorality of humanity always grab the spotlight of the TV cameras. The program producers, and not us, decide what we must know about our country each day. They rock and shock their audiences with chaos and calamity in their battle to win the TV news ratings war.

So, I decided to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of whether or not I should watch this media mania each night and so replayed the events from ABC’s news inside my mind.

A man shoots and kills 10 people in a grocery store in Colorado. News like this makes me think I’d better conceal and carry a gun because as I write this column, there must be other deranged individuals somewhere out there planning to shoot down people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’d better be very vigilant the next time I go to a Dollar Store to buy a quart of milk because you never know if the next guy who steps through the automatic doors might be carrying an automatic rifle.

Those party pests in Miami ignoring the law and social distance guidelines make me think about the mob mentality of large, uncontrollable groups of young adults who lose all sanity and act like packs of wild animals that have escaped from their cages. Could this behavior happen this summer in the Poconos? Will the usual quiet nights be disturbed by the loud sirens of police cars that are deployed to stop the mayhem?

I hear social media angry voices shouting that illegal immigrants will spread drugs and crime throughout our neighborhoods. These voices say they’ll get free housing and health care, too, and that will anger even more Americans.

Blaming Biden for not fixing the problem in Texas and blaming Trump for the violent attack on Washington reeks of the incompetency of leadership and makes me wonder if I’ll ever trust another elected president in my lifetime.

What if killer storms come East? I should consider moving to San Diego where they have over 200 days of good weather every year, but then again, what if a tidal wave or an earthquake wipes out the entire state of California?

That man who took a 2-year-old into an elephant cage makes me wonder how anyone can grow into adulthood and be so stupid. Perhaps this is the worst of all pandemics. Human stupidity is raging across the country and there is no vaccine that will keep us safe from their ridiculous behavior.

This five-minute ABC news broadcast had left me thinking the words, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” Now I’m scared when I look out my window. Is that someone with a gun walking up my street? Could that big truck turning the corner be filled with illegal immigrants who are going to sell drugs on our streets? The sky looks ominous with the approaching gray clouds. Could one of those storms from the Midwest suddenly come and knock the roof of my house? I wonder if that woman holding her infant child on the corner might leave the poor kid on the curb while she runs into the liquor store two blocks away.

So, here’s what I figured. If I watch the news every night, I might be clinically depressed for the rest of my life. Side effects would include intense paranoia and agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder that makes me afraid to leave my house.

Yet there is a quick fix to all this mayhem for me. Instead of worrying about active shooters, killer storms, drug dealers and stupid people, I’m not watching David Muir or any TV news anchors anymore. Call me ignorant. Scold me for not being informed about the evils of the world. I don’t care.

Tomorrow evening during the news hour, I’m going to step back outside again. I’ll feel the sunshine upon my face and listen to the songbirds sing their happy tunes. It will take me only five minutes to once again realize what a wonderful world I live in.

Rich Strack can be reached at richiesadie11@gmail.com.