I hear it every day from people of my generation. They don’t watch the news… because it is too negative.
To a certain extent, I get it, but — it always makes me wonder what purpose that serves? How does that help? How are we going to be participants in the world, in our country or even in our own communities if we don’t know what our fellow citizens are dealing with?
I love a good Sunday Funday as much as the next 30-something but we have to disconnect from Instagram, Netflix, fashion blogs and Pokemon Go once in a while to get out of the bubble and connect with reality.
It’s like the light bill you don’t pay. Eventually the lights get turned off and the hassle of getting the power back on is a heck of a lot more challenging that it would have been to scrape up the money to pay the bill.
It’s like the splinter that you ignore. The splinter doesn’t go away, it gets deeper and infected.
It’s like that leftover box of take-out you leave in the back of your fridge. It doesn’t disappear, it just gets moldy.
We have to keep up. We have to start paying attention and not let the mold grow on our communities because that is what’s happening when we pretend the problems aren’t there. This stuff is real.
The awful flooding in Louisiana. 13 people died, 40,000 homes are damaged and thousands of people are still in shelters, weeks after the fact.
The Boko Haram Insurgency. More than 200 girls are still missing.Watch movie online The Transporter Refueled (2015)
And here in Dallas, five police officers were killed and still, tension between police and the communities they serve remains. Solutions are needed. Discussion is needed.
The thing is, when we refuse to acknowledge what is happening in the world, we miss opportunities to help. We miss opportunities to reach out and be of value in someone else’s life. We miss opportunities to be leaders. And from the perspective of someone who lives and breathes news every day, we need more leaders. We need more people who care.
I became a journalist because I believe the people in my town deserve to know what’s happening around them. That includes the good stuff. They deserve to be inspired by the person who overcame insurmountable odds to become successful. They deserve to hear about the latest health breakthroughs and promising research. They deserve to learn about fundraisers for worthwhile causes. But they also deserve to hear about problems (yes, the negative news) so they can feel be armed with a sense of knowledge.
It is scary to think that my generation is going to forget that we’re a part of something bigger.
As for my part, I will continue to look for and report on positive stories. I need them too and inspiration is a big part of what I push for in our newscasts. Some of you might have noticed I’ve been posting a lot about inspirational, awesome people, using the #TheGoodNews . Feel free to send suggestions my way and I’ll continue to find ways to infuse the news with love and light.
Still, the fact remains. Life is happening all around us and ignoring it won’t make it vanish. I don’t care how you get your information — a website, news radio, cable news, local tv or the good ‘ol fashioned newspaper, just get engaged in the depth of the world around you.
