I don’t want to hear about the swine flu anymore. It’s everywhere, even church. I got an e-mail today from the pastor of my Church informing all the eucharistic ministers that we are not going to be distributing wine during communion or having the sign of peace during mass until the swine flu epidemic passes. While many people agree that this is a good idea and are happy to hear that the Church is taking whatever actions necessary to ensure that people stay healthy, I feel this is taking it one step too far. It’s not mandatory to receive the blood during mass, so why does it matter? If you don’t want to risk it, then don’t take the blood. Or you can be like me and realize that we always have a threat of getting sick.

It’s allergy season too. So on the train I become very entertained when people sitting around me get scared and try to scoot away from anyone with one sniffle or a little cough. Apparently some people now think that absolutely everyone who is not 100% healthy has the swine flu.

And what angers me the most is the naive people. Like Russia banning imports on pork from Mexico, most other Latin America countries and what I believe has grown to 13 states. You cannot get the swine flu from eating pork. In fact, the CDC is now referring to it as the H1N1 flu in attempts to keep it as separate from the pork industry as they can.

But it’s not just that people are over reacting that bothers me. I would like to know more about what is going on in the world right now. How many people know about the situation in Sri Lanka? What about the latest in the piracy in the Gulf of Aden? Or how our troops overseas are doing? Why do we always need to hear about one thing and only one thing in the news?