In my English class senior year of high school, we used to do this thing almost every day called "newsworthy, noteworthy," where we would talk about the news and what was going on in the world. While I agree that yes, you should be educated about what's going on in your country as well as others, I've realized that the news is always depressing or scary. All you hear about is murder, disease, and tragedy. When I brought this up to my teacher, she said to me "If it was happy, then it wouldn't be news."
I disagreed with this statement a year ago and considering all of the horror and sadness happening in the world right now, I began wondering why these traumatic events were more qualified as news rather than something a bit more uplifting.
There are bands and musicians that are touring America for the first time this summer. More people than they ever even imagined are hearing their music. That's news, right? I mean, if your words were being heard by hundreds of people and your dreams were coming true, you’d want to tell everyone about it. A close friend of mine turned 19 the other day. A birthday is a big thing to celebrate don't you think? Especially your last year of being a teenager. This is news. High school graduations were just a couple of weeks ago and teenagers are going off to college soon. That's news to me. Not everybody has the privilege of a higher education and an accomplishment as big as going away to college and graduating high school should be celebrated, not overshadowed by another tragedy. The sun rose and set today, and lit the sky up in colors you couldn’t even begin to name they were so beautiful. Somebody could have gotten married to the love of their life today or have given birth to twins when they weren't even sure they were capable of having one child, let alone two. Somebody could have overcome cancer or gotten a promotion at work that is going to significantly better their lives.
This is all news. News that is mean to be heard over the trauma and devastation that we see on television.
Think about it; when was the last time you sat back and talked about the good things that are going on in the world? When was the last time you asked for the "good news" first, instead of the bad?
