The roar you hear right now on airwaves and newspapers is the post-election vacuum being filled by the holidays and the hoopla that surrounds the end of the year. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Comedy Central, your local news, your mom and dad, the guy in the back of class and anyone who is breathing has offered an opinion on the election and its winner. Now that the 24-hour news cycle has reported, analyzed, debated, discussed, dissected and shouted about the presidential election, it is time for something new.

Invariably, there will be a non-stop breakdown of how the election played out, who won, why and the challenges that the new president faces. The news requires that there be constant reporting of the government, the war, and the upcoming holiday season. Christmas consumer spending is down due to (insert this week’s problem): high oil prices, home loan failures, post-election blues, fear of the economy, Heidi and Spencer have broken up again or because pagans want to outlaw Christmas. The news cycle will go on and on and on and on without fail, bellowing about something, whatever, wherever, to whomever will listen.

Are you listening? The news and entertainment sectors have provided us with plenty of headlines, bylines and one liners, but have you read between the lines?

Comedians and faux-news sites such as “The Onion,” “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report” and “Saturday Night Live” provide plenty of laughs and even some information about politics, government, the war and the economy. However, it is up to us the reader, the voter, the citizen to read and discern the information of importance from the news and the entertainment.

Thomas Jefferson said, “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people … they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”

Now that the election is over the preservation of liberty does not stop, but continues as our legislator begin their jobs and we are to watch. And spend our money, because being a good patriot is being a good consumer. Buy, buy, buy, even if you have three televisions, it is good for the economy to purchase more.

The end of the semester presses down and the reader-cum-student has many a thing to do with projects, papers and finals. Plus the burden of packing up the dorm room, arranging a ride home, sorting out work hours, getting home for a piece of turkey and picking out a present or two for the loved ones.

Word of advice: Your dad doesn’t want a tie, a SLU shirt or another bathroom reader book of interesting facts and stories.

What does your dad (or your mom, grandparents, siblings, etc.) want? I don’t know, but something of substance probably tops the list. Unfortunately substance is not an aisle at Target. This holiday season, think about taking a break from the news and politics, consumerism and school to be that better citizen to the community and your family.

While packing up the laundry think about donating those old clothes to a shelter for the upcoming cold winter months, old food to the food bank and those leftover laundry quarters into the Salvation Army bucket.

That Wednesday when you get home before Turkey Day there is probably a shelter looking for an extra hand or two to prepare meals, wrap presents or hand out warm clothes for the upcoming winter.

As easy as it is to donate, it always seems to be a little better to participate. Maybe your sibling, grandma or one of your parents could go along and maybe count this as your “quality time” while at hacienda.

Everything is about to hit full tilt, the down-hill slide, the inevitable end of the semester. Caffeine will be consumed at an enormous rate to fuel the all-nighters, study sessions and with soon-to-be-home visions dancing in your head. Believe it or not, you will finish, your sanity will remain and the mall will have a parking spot.

Instead of diving head-first into the grind of life, resist the urge to splurge on gifts no one wants or needs, go out one more time to the hometown bar or work marathon sessions to buy an extra beer, and make an effort to reach out, volunteer and put in the quality time with the family.

But I do know that Thomas Jefferson also said, “I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it”.

Lew Griffith is a student of the Saint Louis University Graduate School.