I don’t watch a lot of television or movies. In fact, most of the time — unless it’s football — it’s on for background. The grandkids, on the other hand, like the action shows, including the NCIS series, Hawaii Five-O, Criminal Minds. And, of course, action shoot-em-up movies.

So, occasionally — okay, more often than not — my eyes wander to the screen. And I’ve come to a conclusion. I feel very safe.

I mean, the bad guys can’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn with their sophisticated weaponry while our FBI and other good guy agents systematically pick off all the ne’er-do-wells with dead accurate kill shots to the heart or forehead with their standard issue glocks. The terrorists can’t seem to lock onto a target, always trailing the twisting, turning, tumbling defenders of good with their hail of bullets.

Now, it has almost always been so. I mean, let’s look at Jack Bauer. He went through more gunfights and explosions in one day than most of us will ever experience in our entire lifetime. And at the end of the day he generally was a fresh as a daisy. Or the Lethal Weapon series . Or the Bourne series. Or the Jack Ryan saga. Or Die Hard and sequels. Or Mission Impossible 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

I know. It’s entertainment. It’s escapism. It’s art imitating life … sort of.

All I know, if the bad guys are that inept … I feel pretty safe!

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.