The television was blaring as we walked into the waiting room of the doctor’s office Tuesday morning.

Looming above a room full of patients, images from a national news broadcast flickered incessantly in the space.

With an almost panicked voice, the anchors blurted out intense words like crisis, emergency, controversy, deception, epidemic.

With high powered-graphics, swooshing sound effects and sensational interviews, news television these days has become nothing but a fancy high-blood-pressure inducing device.

Everything is provocative, scandalous, controversial, unbelievable. If it isn’t, it doesn’t make it on television.

Coming from a family that lived with the television blaring from dawn until way past dusk, I tried as hard as I could to tune out the relentless chatter.

As I walked to the exam room, I noticed definite signs that I had been unwittingly affected. My heart raced a little faster, my face was a little warmer and my fists were slightly clenched.

Thankfully, the world on the other side of the waiting room door is very different. For some who are used to the incessant chatter of television, it might be downright boring.

Haven’t you ever noticed that doctors are never panicked? Rarely do they react with extreme gestures and sensational words.

Doctors ask questions, take vital signs and listen. They respond with carefully considered words. They develop plans and discuss contingencies. When they don’t know an answer, they do more tests and seek specialists’ opinions.

Can you imagine what it would be like if doctors acted more like network news anchors and reacted with panic and shock to our maladies?

Panic seems to be the first rule of the human race. Our brains seemed to be hard-wired to be on alert, to watch for danger, to worry.

When we don’t know what to do or are frightened we might as well panic — and we all know there is plenty to panic about these days.

Maybe we all need to take more than prescriptions from doctors these days.

Maybe we should take a lesson from these professionals who deal with crisis each day — not with panic and fear — but with calm, measured actions.

I have attended many council, police jury and board of supervisor meetings in my time as a journalist.

One thing that I have noticed is that the meetings where leaders take the physician’s approach to crisis management tend to be productive and controlled. Things get done when everyone is not in crisis mode. Issues are carefully considered, questions are researched and decisions are made.

Area leaders who lead more like doctors are busy accomplishing long-term goals, looking to the future with the big-picture in mind.

Their attitude is the best marketing tool for the community. It attracts rather than repels.

Unfortunately some leaders use crises like news broadcasters use the news. It seems as if they react in crisis mode, if for no other reason than to show voters that they care, that they are taking things seriously.

After all, voters think their issues are the most urgent. Not to risk losing votes, some leaders scramble. They lose sight of the big picture. They panic.

My hope is that we all gain insight from those who act more like doctors than news anchors. The community has much to gain if we do.

Ben Hillyer is the Web editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540.