Have we as a nation reached the tipping point, when the conversation turns from resolving our nation's fiscal and employment crisis to one of canine defecation? Is something unbalanced with our culture when a story about a local man who pulled a sophomoric and childish prank on one of his neighbors gets top billing by our national news media?

The act of putting a bag of dog feces in the mailbox was a dumb act, and didn't even merit front page story in our pages. Perhaps this is part of the reason why the main street media including the myriad of both conservative and liberal radio talk hosts are not respected in this country.

With the announcement of the opening of Baxter International, our community has bucked the trend of the last five years of shrinking jobs and hardship. While this story was covered by media outlets in the state and region, it did not get the national attention that Mr. Furnad's dog excrement received.

We are disappointed that the national conversation is centered on a bag of feces. As a nation and a society, we have a lot of looming problems in need of attention, and packaged dung in Ben and Ralph's mailbox is easily solved with a trash bin.

We do not have the answers to the questions that we posed at the beginning of the opinion piece; however we know the longer we converse about crap the longer we will be mired in it.