As someone who would rather see in-depth, factual, investigative reporting of events and not simply 15-second news snips, I have a general tendency to cringe incessantly during local news broadcasts.

Sometimes, though, those local newscasters have a way of opening your eyes to something so inherently evil yet so inherently American. It is something called apathy.

I was watching one of the local networks. Two of the newscasters were promoting their station’s Combat Hunger campaign.

I don’t know who wrote the piece for them, but one of the newscasters reminded her viewers that it was Thanksgiving time again — time to think about the hungry.

The statement seemed so blatantly absurd. Has Thanksgiving officially been named the one day in the calendar year for us to think about the hungry?

If we had forgotten Thanksgiving/Hungry People Day this year, could we ignore the plight of the hungry again until next Thanksgiving, when we once again feel the weight of our consciences as we are stuffing our faces?

A few days later, I overheard a conversation between two women at Drake. One of the women was telling the other that she had just bought groceries the night before, took them home and put them away, and then realized she had nothing to eat.

This is the sort of thing we say all of the time. Yet when you hear another person put it so bluntly, you begin to realize how completely gluttonous and insensitive it sounds. I doubt a starving person would have any problem finding something to eat in my cupboards.

Unfortunately, the holiday season seems to be more a selfish search for material possessions than a season to reflect upon those less fortunate or to appreciate friends and family.

I direct you to the recent battles undertaken in the aisles of local shopping malls as evidence of the shallowness that has befallen this holiday season.

Most of the battles center around an obnoxious little red hairball named Tickle Me Elmo, a toy that, as far as I can observe, has no educational value whatsoever.

According to a local radio station, a woman in Fort Dodge had asked a store clerk for help in reaching the last Elmo doll. It was on a high shelf that she was unable to reach. As the clerk was in the process of handing her the doll, another shopper rushed by and grabbed it out of the clerk’s hands.

During her Thanksgiving break, my friend went home to Omaha and took pictures of a Target store’s Thanksgiving sale as an assignment for her photography class.

She stood on the sidelines taking pictures of the customers running their carts into each other and stepping over each other in attempt to procure their children’s Christmas toys.

Finally, a newspaper reported that one woman was charged with assault for slapping another shopper when the shopper grabbed the last copy of the toy the woman wanted for her child.

It is nice to know these people love their children so much that they are willing to injure others in an attempt to provide their children with the necessities of life.

After all, what in the world would a child do without a Tickle Me Elmo? God forbid these children should have to learn one of life’s hard lessons: We can’t always get what we want.

The question these parents should be asking themselves is whether they would want their children to see them behaving this way.

What message does it send to a child when his or her mother is arrested for assault simply because she didn’t get the toy she wanted? And people wonder why so many children these days seem like selfish, spoiled brats.

I can’t help but think that the holiday season has turned into nothing more than a quest for mere material pleasures.

Even I, a devout pagan who celebrates Christmas as a family holiday and not a religious one, cannot help but be taken aback by how our society seems to have become so shallow and selfish, attending to the plight of others only after we have satisfied ourselves and our guilt weighs heavy on our minds.

It would be nice if this holiday season we would make an attempt to provide all the children of this country with a hot meal, clean clothes and a warm shelter.

But then, I guess these concepts just aren’t as tangible or entertaining as Tickle Me Elmo.

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Theresa Wilson is a graduate student at ISU in political science. She is a law student at Drake University.