COLUMN: My new year’s resolution for all: bring back patience

“Dear fellas, I can’t believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid, but now they’re everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.” - Brooks in the 1994 movie “The Shawshank Redemption.”

I have my own conspiracies.

I don’t like the pitch clock in Major League Baseball. My conspiracy is MLB caved into a large group of society, and all not necessarily baseball fans, that is beyond addicted to the immediacy of smartphone use. That group of people demands every facet of society meet their needs and MLB gave in. Speeding up the game makes it quicker to finish the game, which is what people really want.

The previous chess-like pace of baseball never bothered me.

Seeing society lose even more patience disturbs me more than having a pitcher throw in a determined amount of time. I’m surprised the people who are in favor of the pitch clock have not protested in front of appliance manufacturers demanding an oven that cooks an 18 pound Thanksgiving Day turkey in 45 minutes.

What the country experienced last month is another great example of people’s lack of patience and unintended consequences. Or maybe they are intended.

“They’re not answering the questions,” Chris Christie told ABC’s “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos of federal officials. Christie is the former governor of New Jersey and was commenting on the number and consistency of drones flying over portions of New Jersey.

Stephanopoulos said Department of Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas said his department “is monitoring it, they haven’t seen any unusual activity, and they need more authority” to down drones when necessary.

Christie wasn’t convinced. He was concerned with Mayorkas’ claims the flying objects were not “unusual.”

“To say this is not unusual activity, it’s just wrong!” Christie said. “I’ve lived in New Jersey my whole life. This is the first time that I’ve noticed drones over my house.”

Then Christie got to the point; my point.

Christie said Mayorkas gave a non-answer, telling Stephanopoulos people are tired of not having any information on the drones they’ve started approaching him in public to ask if he knows anything about them.

“I was in a restaurant in Monmouth County on Friday night. Had people at the bar coming up to me and saying, ‘Governor Murphy, won’t tell me anything. The president won’t tell me anything,’ " Christie said.

“We’re used to having [information] so rapidly. If you don’t fill that vacuum, then all the conspiracy theories get filled in there,” Christie said, calling out local Congressman Jeff Van Drew, who has claimed the drones are coming from an Iranian mothership offshore.

We have reached a point where we are surrounded by so much information and access, that if we don’t find an answer in a time we are comfortable or demand, we instinctively go to our own conclusions and speculation. Jumping to conclusions may be the only exercise some people get.

What Christie explained is just one example or concept of that mentality.

Another setting to see this is readers’ comments on news outlets’ story comments or Facebook pages that includes their stories. The CNA has its stories on a Facebook page.

I read other newspapers which have the same format. My favorite are the occasional readers who appear to have jumped straight to the comments. The reader includes their own opinion which sometimes isn’t complete.

“That detail was included in the story,” someone else will respond.

Have some patience, read the story.

Have some patience with getting your answers.