If your local newspaper or television station did a story about President Barack Obama "pardoning" a couple of turkeys as a PR opportunity and you were perhaps particularly angry at Obama's knockout victory over Mitt Romney, you can write an angry letter asking why the paper/TV station isn't writing/reporting more about the terrible death of American Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi.

In fact, I can write part of it for you.

"You biased media libtards are so desperate to carry Obama's water that you ignore the loss of American lives to write about turkeys. Typical America-hating behavior designed to get the sheeple to continue voting for Muslims like Obama and their failed socialist policies designed to destroy our liberties."

Thereyago. I think I got it all in there. "Libtards," "sheeple," "socialism."

Perfect.

Trouble is, that line of thought applies to stories about the local schools, the mayor, your town's annual Christmas parade, various woman-chasing government employees and the weather.

Theoretically, every American news outlet should have written about the fall of the Twin Towers every day since that awful morning. After all, if thousands of Americans die, is there ever any excuse for any newspaper anywhere to ever write about the school board ever again?

That kind of focus is exactly what produces terrorists. Ever hear a Jihadist talk about the Crusades? The Crusades took place a thousand years ago, but over there in East Carbombistan, they talk about the First Crusade like it's still going on. For them, it is still going on, which is why they have no problem using high explosives to kill babies.

I have a sick cat. He's 17 years old, and he's congested, and he hasn't eaten in a couple of days. That worries me.

But it shouldn't. My mother has been sick for the last four months, in and out of the hospital and the nursing home. I should be worried about her, not the cat.

But the American ambassador to Benghazi was killed. How can I care about my mother now? I must hate America, if all I can think about at a time like this is my sick mother.

And even if the American ambassador to Benghazi is dead, what about the thousands of unborn babies who will be aborted this year? That's what I should care about, that and only that, nothing else. If I don't care about that and only that, I'm a bad Christian.

Show a monkey a banana, and he thinks, "bananabananabanana," until he eats the banana. Then, he thinks about the next banana he sees. The monkey is focused, and he never thinks about anything but the banana that's right in front of his furry nose. The monkey should call talk radio and talk about the banana, which after all, is the most important thing in the world.

People are, or should be, far more delicate mechanisms. We can grieve, eat a banana, be enraged, worry about America and worry about our cat's appetite all at the same time, with plenty of brain left over to worry about a sick mother and our property taxes.

Would I throw my elderly mother into a burning building to save the life of an American ambassador? Would I shoot my cat to lower the national unemployment rate by 2 percent? Would I kill 2,000 unborn babies to save the lives of 5,000 American soldiers?

I'm not sure I can answer any of those questions, and I damn sure can't answer them fast.

But I'll tell you one thing: I'm damn scared of the people who can.

To find out more about Marc Munroe Dion and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com. Marc Munroe Dion has two books available on Amazon.com, Nook and iTunes. The first, "Between Wealth and Welfare, a Liberal Curmudgeon in America," is a collection of his Creators Syndicate columns. The second, "Mill River Smoke," is a collection of his short fiction and essays.