What’s Going On – And Forward

Earlier this week I challenged the news media to report more random acts of kindness not knowing the previous night’s recording of CBS and NBC’s 10:00 broadcasts already had.

Right here in North Texas, Executives in Action actually acted upon an idea inspired by the increasing popularity of food trucks. The organization handed out free food to children that day. By pairing non-profit organizations with senior level business leaders together, they served glazed donuts and apples to children, happy to receive them, on their way to school. According to the report, Executives in Action plans to serve coffee at D.A.R.T. stations and to distribute care packages at homeless shelters. This sounds to me like the start of something big.

Later in the week both networks also reported that someone stole a water jug from a local convenience store that was collecting donations for an 8-year-old cancer patient’s family. Days later, the two young boys that took the jar and the money, seeing the report on television, were so stricken with the reality of the wrong they’d done they not only returned the jar and the money, wrote heartfelt personal letters of apology to the beneficiary, but the report stated the two boys are also personally collecting more money to donate to the sick boy.

And this just in: Runners will hit the path over the weekend to honor and commemorate the life of the late David Stevens, victim of the random act of senseless violence which inspired my initial post, What’s Going On.

The world is indeed a mess, but today I feel markedly hopeful for all of mankind. While simply doing the next good thing may be naively altruistic, evidently I’m not the only one believing it actually is the next best thing we can do. With that I look forward to the next new day.

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What’s Going On?

I wonder often about the news media and what they think they’re doing. Today I consider ways they can make the world a better place in the middle of all the madness (spinning off from my theory of doing the next right thing).

Weeks ago, for the first time in too long a law enforcement representative refused to glorify a criminal by speaking his name in the news report. Scant weeks later another law enforcement officer took the same stand. It’s a trend I hope flies high and wide.

I like to believe today’s journalists across the board want to report what’s happening in the world, report events accurately, as they happen as much as they ever have. Conspiracy theories aside, I sincerely pray for the reporters/anchors/bloggers I follow. Theirs can easily become a hazardous occupation. I don’t imagine anybody assigning blame for getting caught up in the ratings, Facebook likes, and blog stats, but let’s consider how those figures weigh in against our need for actual facts as compared to opinion.

I notice often that stories often don’t make the newscasts until months after the fact. That said, I also understand the information highway and especially social media complicate most everything, so that law enforcement is also more challenged to do the job effectively, successfully more than ever before. People randomly circulate rumors, many propagating attitude over actual facts. Less dogmatic individuals read them and adopt their opinions based on that limited tidbit of information. Such can hinder, hamper or otherwise block the actual facts, contributing more to the problems rather than cures.

Today for example, one of the first stories broadcast on this morning’s local news report is about a mid-20’s to mid-30’s aged man jogging in Eastern Dallas who fell to a random act of violence on Sunday (two days ago) and will not return home to his family. In the heartbreaking news coverage the perpetrators‘ neighbor’s comments comforted me too in the midst of the tragic story.

I firmly believe the news media would be far better served if they stopped self-inflating their ratings by making a bigger deal about victims of random acts of violence, rather than fluffing their stories with expansive details about the perpetrators; those that regardless of their motivation, choose to mark the world with bloodshed. The only actual facts I learned about the case in mention are all about the murderer – not much about the victim, his family and his community.

That messed up trend has become too common, especially in the news. Granted, we need to be aware of the violence and dangers all around us, but for people’s sake, we also need random acts of kindness going on as well.