Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Once again, its not the event, its our reaction to the event. Here is an exercise in reading news headlines.

Read the headlines (these are paraphrased from the Washington Post on one day):

• Virus tied to increased risk of neurological and psychiatric illness
• The pandemic has caused parents to slow down
• Expanding the Supreme Court could erode trust
• AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine shortfall hobbles Australia’s rollout

Insert the words, “Our reaction to” in front of these headlines:

• Our reaction to virus tied to increased risk of neurological and psychiatric illness
• Our reaction to the pandemic has caused parents to slow down
• Our reaction to expanding the Supreme Court could erode trust
• Our reaction to AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine shortfall hobbles Australia’s rollout

Hmmm. The change is we have assigned responsibility of some thing to US. We chose to do one thing or another in reaction to one event or thing or another.

Sometimes we don’t want to assigned responsibility to US. That makes US look bad. Perhaps we would choose differently next time if we wrote tomorrow’s headline about our reaction to some thing instead of about some thing.