Sometimes I wonder why I watch the nightly news.

Earthquakes killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Aid was slow in coming, and builders are blamed for shoddy construction.

Russia launched a new offensive. Ukrainian forces, short of ammunition, fell back.

Several US airliners had near crashes and collisions.

A train carrying dangerous chemicals derailed in Ohio.

A U-Haul driver went on a violent rampage in Brooklyn.

There was another mass shooting, at Michigan State.

The eighth student this year died at my alma mater, NC State.

A gun was found in a high school student’s backpack in Durham.

Then, the military wouldn’t rule out the possibility that mysterious flying objects it shot down were extraterrestrial.

Long ago, John Lennon sang, “There’s UFOs over New York, and I ain’t too surprised.”

Hey, Mr. Spaceman, won’t you please take me along?