The rabbit ears are perked at attention, one pointing south and another tilted at a jaunty angle toward the northwest.
We’re tuned in, waiting for the great digital awakening to come zinging through the airwaves.
The converter box is sitting right where I laid it after I bought it on the very last day my $40 coupon was still valid. Someday soon I’ll need to get that hooked up.
I could sort out the tangle of wires to route the signal from the rabbit ears to converter box to DVD to VCR to television so I can watch “Wheel of Fortune” in all its digital splendor. But, really, there are so many other things that are demanding attention.
As Americans run the hassle of preparing for the era of digital television, I ask the same question.
Considering the incapacitated economy, the war in Iraq and the Middle East, job losses and deflation, is clear television reception really the most pressing issue in the country right now?
President-elect Obama suggested pushing back the Feb. 17 drop-dead date for analog television, citing the fund for converter box coupons has run dry. It seems that after banks, insurance companies and automakers dipped their buckets in the well, nothing was left to bail out people with old TVs. But delaying the day of digital might cause even more problems, others warn.
The government states that the big switch was mandated in part because digital signals have better picture and sound quality. This reasoning ignores the dynamics of those of us who get our TV like God intended — for free over the airwaves.
Some live in rural areas where cable doesn’t dare to go and satellite options don’t include local networks. In little glens and dales of Northwest Missouri, television reception is an inexact science depending on cloud cover, sun spots, birds roosting on the antenna and a 14-year-old kid able to turn the arms while someone inside yells out directions.
I’ve heard local people report they lost channels when they switched to digital. The signal is clearer, but only when you get it.
I dropped cable four years ago when I realized I could direct that money toward a house payment instead of supporting approximately 43 channels that disrespect my values.
There are also those who have prioritized groceries and gas to get to work over ESPN. They’re not exactly positioned to run out and buy a new set or invest in an antenna.
It now seems as though these people are being penalized by their government. Imagine if all the resources invested in this digital thing had gone to something useful, like bridges or education.
And there wasn’t one thing wrong with those rabbit ears.
