A Little Good News - The Affirmation Spot for Thursday November 1, 2007

Hello and welcome to November.You might be old enough to remember the Anne Murray song entitled A Little Good News. Here are some of the lyrics. I’m sure you’ll agree with the sentiment.I rolled out this morningKids had the mornin’ news show onBryant Gumbel was talkin’ ’bout the fighting in LebanonSome senator was squawkin’ ’bout the bad economyIt’s gonna get worse you see, we need a change in policyThere’s a local paper rolled up in a rubber bandOne more sad story’s one more than I can standJust once how I’d like to see the headline say“Not much to print today, can’t find nothin’ bad to say”, becauseNobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of townNobody OD’ed, nobody burned a single buildin’ downNobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vainWe sure could use a little good news todayI’ll come home this evenin’I’ll bet that the news will be the sameSomebody takes a hostage, somebody steals a planeHow I wanna hear the anchor man talk about a county fairAnd how we cleaned up the air, how everybody learned to careWhoa, tell meNobody was assassinated in the whole Third World todayAnd in the streets of Ireland, all the children had to do was playAnd everybody loves everybody in the good old USAWe sure could use a little good news todayYou know, there actually is a lot of good news in the world today. For some reason, our friends in the media don’t believe it sells. So we get a steady diet of rape, murder, abduction, war, and fear. If you are what you eat applies to the information we take in, we’re in sad shape.We have to be careful, though, not to paint the media with too broad a brush. There are news sources out there, not the traditional ones, that are committed to finding and reporting the good that you might have suspected might be happening somewhere on planet earth.I wanted to share a few resources I’ve come across in case you need a reaffirmation that the world and its people have not all lost their minds.I really recommend these two magazines:

• Ode Magazine - Ode is a news magazine along the lines of Time or News Week that focuses on positive happenings in the world and people solving problems.
• Positive Thinking Magazine - PTM's website About Us page states, “We are people like you—presumably—who believe that how we think about our lives pretty much affects how they turn out. That living a positive lifestyle is the best way to avoid living a negative one.

The following websites also focus on positive news stories and provide a great change of pace from the mainstream fear injections.

• HeroicStories.com - This site publish true stories about ordinary people being heroic in everyday life.
• Happy News.com - We're obviously different from most news sites in that we're looking for happy stories only. We're a news supplement, or online magazine, if you will, that seeks to add to a newsreader's experience. So we're not going to be interested in some stories, including some very newsworthy ones. Our basic belief is not that people should be insulated from bad news. Far from it. We encourage people to be fully engaged, fully informed citizens. That means we need to know the good and the bad. We just believe much of the traditional media has strayed from this course, and reports a disproportionate amount of negative news. We are trying to balance the scales back out. Plus, let's be honest, there are some days when we have just "had enough" and need a pick-me-up.
• Good News Network.org - "Our mission," reads their website, "is simple. Lots of people hunger for positive news in their lives and sense this need in society as well. The birth of positive news programming was inevitable in today's media landscape and it will become a permanent fixture in the culture of the 21st century."
• Upbeat.net - Upbeat is dedicated to promoting the positive, optimistic, and inspiring good news stories in the world."
• Daryn Kagan.com - This website is run by CNN news anchor Daryn Kagan and focuses on presenting postive, hopeful stories.

Hope you are able to find a little good news today.Peace…RayThe Affirmation Spot.com The tracback url for this blog is: http://theaffirmationspot.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/a-little-good-news-the-affirmation-spot-for-thursday-november-1-2007/ :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::