Listening Posts
If listening posts are places where we get our news then there must be a lot of them, which makes it easier to access the news more. For me, there aren’t many places that I would consider to be my listening post. Sometimes I will get a pop up of a big headline on the latest news of the day from the sidebar of my phone - if I was to slide over to the screen. I don’t normally peek at what’s happening in the world unless a headline catches my attention and I decide to click on it.
Home will be another listening post for me. I can be in any room in the house and can get lost in the loud commotion of my parents discussing something that may have happened- either in town or around the world. I will get lost in their debates and different perspectives on a matter that I clearly don’t understand nor heard about before, but it would be the energy of their voices - the seriousness and urgency of voicing their opinions on the matter that intrigues me in a sense, which makes me want to know more. This would make me suggest that another post will be my relatives, for example, my grandmother.
A few days ago, I went to visit my grandmother - a woman who has all the information and knows just about the latest gossip that has happened in or around town - sitting in her kitchen in a discussion with an older woman - a distant relative, I believe. Their discussion topic is foggy to me but I learned a bit from their open discussion - like how they spoke of a recent murder. The older woman claimed to be at the scene when she was woken from her sleep in the night, overhearing that some man - they were discreet on not mentioning names, I assume because of my presence as if I would know - has killed someone and finding the body as she explained was lying on his back with his shoes pointed up at the sky near his truck. Never have I recalled someone that I knew to be that close to death before, so to me I looked at her like a special celebrity in a sense or maybe it was the hidden journalist in me and wanted to pull out my imaginary microphone and question her to ‘tell me more’ as I grow more intrigued about the story.
Aside from television with the newscast being played, the final place I would go to hear the news whether by force or choice would be at work. I work in an environment that deals with upfront customer service and I encounter many people on a day to day basis - different individuals with their own stories. Even my coworkers will engage in gossip as they talk amongst me about such and such. The incident regarding the male - Alondo Caldwell, who fatally shot another individual during a family reunion.
A day after the incident, certain individuals had came inside and started talking about it and I began to hear this incident being brought up around me, though I didn’t know who they were referring to - until my cousin entered the building and whispered to me that my family relative - Chico (Alondo) had killed someone.
Another vague reference is when an older woman was in the store, showing a picture of a girl’s arm who was shot to another older woman. This made me feel astonished at how one can naturally talk about a shooting as if it was something out of the ordinary, which made me reflect on today’s world and certain things that shouldn’t be happening are becoming normalized. The red, blurry photo of pink and pale enters my mind from that image that I took a slight peek at along with the normal, calm tone of the other woman who was open about sharing such a sensitive photo in public will always scar me.
In conclusion, listening posts are just about everywhere where you can get a listen of the latest news - just be careful that not all that you hear may be true or not.
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