Editor, Ceres Courier,

Can there be any doubt that American entertainment producers and consumers have very little community concern left in their bodies?

We have World War III breaking out in the Near East and Africa, but that is not quite enough nightly entertainment for us here at home. We need TLC’s new reality dating series “Love and Translation,” where three shirtless American beach boys hook up with 12 foreign bikini babes who don’t speak a word of English. Now that’s the stuff of greatness, people.

This is the very definition of “fiddling while Rome burns.” Okay, for those of you who haven’t cracked a book since high school or even in high school, “fiddling” in ancient democratic Rome meant making musical merriment while your own city and civilization was cascading down on top of your heads.

A young man in his thirties asked me if there is any chance we can stop America from stumbling off the edge of a cliff. Maybe, I said, but probably not. We’ll be watching “Love and Translation” when it happens.

Kimball Shinkoskey

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