I think the news gives us a distorted sense of reality. An old saying is if it bleeds it leads. Meaning it will be the front story to get peoples attention. People today have gotten so scared of everything we hear about murders and missing children and rape etc etc. But the only reason these things are on the news are because they are newsworthy meaning they are uncommon. You don't hear about the millions of people that drive everyday that didn't get into an accident or people that live in inner city areas and don't get killed. Yes violent crime is bad (of course!) and we should pay some attention to it. But violent crime rates are generally falling and having been doing so for at least the past 10 years. Now most people get the majority of their news and information from TV, but TV is the worst medium to get information from. Especially commerical television. Debate and news is broken down into soundbites and 15 to 30 second clips, it is impossible to have a real debate in such a format. There is more analysis on vgchartz then on most news programs these days. End long rant.
If you can, and you should, then you must.
