People Do Amazing Things

Sometimes in the news business we got so caught up in seeking out the bad news. Look at any of your major news stations and it’s full of tragedy, boats sinking, buses catching fire and maybe your occasional sex or drug crime. I believe that sometimes the world needs to hear a little good news. Those fluffy features and feel good stories is what can make a person realize that maybe there’s bad in this world, but there’s also a lot of good.

In the past few weeks, I was able to recognize some people doing amazing things in our area. A physicist trying to save the world, a boy just trying to brighten the day of a small girl, businesses that are going above and beyond: These are all those types of stories that sometimes we just need to hear. They motivate us, they inspire us and sometimes push us to do good.

In the last week, I helped edit a paper for one of my cousins. While he’s always been a quiet brain, and a jock, and sometimes the bully to his younger cousin as a kid, I have to say I am pretty proud of him. He’s working on some research regarding robotics that will help paraplegics someday walk. He graduated college and went into engineering and is now working his way through his masters degree.

There’s good news all around us. But why are we so focused on the bad? Being a part of the news business, I’ve dabbled in television, radio and clearly newspaper, and all of them had one thing in common. Crime, murder and bad news sells. People buy more papers when something out of the ordinary happens. I feel very much that people are naturally drawn to the negative. Is that right? No, but it just is what it is.

So while we may strive to seek out the good in our own lives, remember that all that bad news is being reported more frequently. The world may seem like it’s grown to chaos, but really you’re just hearing about it more. There are some serious issues out there and people need to be aware of what’s going on. They need to be educated on what the government is doing and not doing for the people. The key to that last sentence is: what they are doing. There’s always two sides to every coin, story and person.

To focus on the negative, means you should be seeking out a way to solve the problem. If you’re not trying to solve the problem, then you may be part of the problem. Instead focus on what is going right, what is being done right, then build on that.

I’m not telling you to turn off the news and walk away, or turn a blind eye to wrong doing. After all, that’s my bread and butter. I’m just suggesting that sometimes the bad news needs to be taken with a grain of salt, or as I’d prefer a grain of sugar. While the negative news sometimes makes one heck of a story, sometimes the positive ones can remind us why we endure all the bad.