Enough bad news

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Are we sick yet of story upon story, revelation upon revelation, of the four young men charged with murdering a Mont Vernon mother and savaging her young daughter?

Yes, but of course there’s much more to come. Stay tuned, as usual.

But in the midst of this horror there is, as there always is, hope. Bear witness to this through the actions of students in Merrimack Middle School and the Thorntons Ferry Elementary School, as reported in last week’s Journal:

Merrimack Middle School students took part in the Home Health & Hospice Care Giving Tree Program, taking tags from a tree and purchasing gifts. This year, more than 150 gifts were purchased for the sick, shut-in and the homeless.

At Thorntons Ferry Elementary School, more than 185 students picked up mittens identifying gifts and/or clothing items needed to provide support for families during the holiday season. Items were distributed to families Dec. 21, along with a complete ham dinner for each family provided by the Parents and Teachers of Thorntons Ferry.

These kids, not the four who will spend decades behind bars should they be convicted, are the ones to whom we should look for the future of the nation. They are kids who care. They are kids who understand – with the help of their teachers, of course – that there are people in their community not as fortunate as they. With the help of their teachers, they did something, in their own small way, to help.

One of the complaints about newspapers, television news, even radio news, is that there just isn’t enough good news reported. Well, if you regularly read the Journal, you’ll know that isn’t true and this story was one example.

But, of course there, is more good news out there. We’d love to report it, as we did this story, but we can use your help. If you know of a good news story, particularly one about young kids lending a hand to their community, e-mail us at cabnews@cabinet.com, and we’ll see what we can do.