By Mary O’KEEFE

Over the weekend I had to stop watching the news. Now anyone who knows me understands this is a monumental decision because I am and have always been obsessed with the news. I read the Des Moines Register and Oskaloosa Herald every day from kindergarten well into my young adulthood. I couldn’t wait for “60 Minutes” to air and, as a family, we would sit, watch and learn. I am lucky enough to remember listening to Walter Cronkite’s “CBS Evening News.” Now the way we get news, and those sharing the news, has changed. It seems like the same thing is being reported over and over with the focus being on one or maybe two subjects. And honestly – it has been more difficult to read or tune into the news lately, but this weekend I just had to step away.

I decided to turn to “The Twilight Zone.” I know it may seem weird to escape into this series but I really enjoy great writing and there is nothing like “The Twilight Zone,” especially the episodes written by creator Rod Serling.

I watched “No Time Like the Past” written by Serling and starring Dana Andrews. The plot was centered on a scientist, portrayed by Andrews, who developed a time machine.

“We live in a cesspool, a septic tank, a gigantic sewage complex in which runs the dregs, the filth, the misery-laden slop of the race of men: his hatred, prejudices, passions and violence. And the keeper of this sewer: man. He is a scientifically advanced monkey who walks upright, with eyes wide open, into an abyss of his own making. His bombs, fallout, poisons, radioactivity … everything he designs as an art for dying is his excuse for living. We live in an exquisite bedlam, an insanity … made all the more grotesque by the fact that we don’t recognize it as insanity.”

That was how Andrews’ character, Paul Driscoll, stated why he wanted to take a time trip to the past to correct what he considered were its the errors.

That speech honestly took my breath away. Serling did not hold anything back. Many times in his writing there were a subtle message of societies’ shortcomings but boy this was not subtle … and I loved it.

Driscoll first traveled to Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 in an attempt to convince local police the public needed to flee the area. He tried to warn them of the bomb that would be dropped and he wanted to save lives; however, no one believed him. Then he traveled to 1939 Germany and attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, but he was interrupted by a housekeeper who supported Hitler’s movement. She became suspicious and contacted the SS; however, when officers arrived Driscoll was gone –back to the future. Hitler continued his speech … and his reign of terror. Then Driscoll traveled to the Lusitania on May 6, 1915. He begged the ship’s captain to change his course to avoid the German U-boat torpedo before it slammed into the side of his ship. But again – he did not persuade anyone to change course.

Granted, Andrews’ character was not the best candidate to send back to the past. He seemed to be under the assumption that people would just believe him and change their process; maybe that is what scientists think. They present facts and people should just believe them. They warn and often they are ignored.

Driscoll had given up trying to change the past and went to a small Indiana town in the 1800s. Here he planned to live a simple life, ignoring the future; however, it turned out not only can people not outrun their past, they can’t outrun their future either. His actions caused a devastating fire that injured children so he went back to his own timeline.

He found that the past can’t be changed and told his colleague, “Do something about the tomorrows. They’re the ones that count.”

Not surprisingly this is exactly what I needed to hear. First, to remember that America has been through some very tough times in the past and we survived. We tend to think “This is the end” because of our political differences, new science like AI, Internet cruelty that seems to be spreading to our everyday life, and our climate being attacked. But this episode of “The Twilight Zone” made me examine empathy toward those who lived through WWII. The fear the public must have felt when the world went to war again, that “the war to end all wars” was not true. Then learning about the Nazis plans – not only of world domination but of the Holocaust and how humans could be so cruel and ruthless. Then the bomb that took us into the unknown nuclear future and the unchecked pollution that seemed to be destroying our air, lakes and oceans.

That last statement from the time traveler – “Do something about the tomorrows. They’re the ones that count” – made much more sense to me. This runs alongside what I had been taught by my parents, which aligns with Mahatma Gandhi’s guidance of “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

So go clean a beach, learn about what companies are Earth-friendly and support them, speak up against injustice and be kind to others – even when others are not brave enough to be kind to you.

The weather is going to be hot, above normal temps of low 90s. We won’t be seeing the highs of 110 degrees like other areas of the southwest but we will get up to 100 and the upper 90s.

Friday through Sunday will be our hottest days, according to Mike Wofford, NOAA meteorologist. But wait – there’s more. We may also get another surprise thunderstorm later this week.

“There is some indication more moisture [may come] from the southeast,” Wofford said.

The storms typically come over Arizona and NOAA has “low confidence” that a thunderstorm is in our future; however, there is a possibility.