A Little Good News

Back in my early memories of "the news" in high school, what I most remember was listening to Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News with Mom and Dad, sitting in the living room around the TV.  Religiously.  Every evening.  Years later, when Dan Rather took his place, we all lamented that no one could ever replace Walter Cronkite.

I don't remember when I switched to ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, but it was soon after reading that ABC's coverage was supposedly "less conservative."  That caught my ear, so I switched...until he died in 2005 at age 67, of lung cancer.  [My dad also died of lung cancer but hadn't smoked a day in his life.]  Wiki says Jennings "was known for his ability to calmly portray events as they were happening...."

But what I liked most about Jennings, to be honest, was how he invariably would end the evening with a positive, touching, up-beat, inspirational, people-story.  It helped you forget about all the bad stuff you had just heard.  It actually gave you hope for a world not going to hell in a hand basket.

Today I live in a country whose language is still not 'mine' enough for the local news.  I rely on CNN Int'l in English to help me keep tabs on the world as we know it today.  What's happening now in the Middle East steals the show, of course.  Did any of us believe the Egypt fiasco would end with some semblance of Victory?  And what about Libya?

To get the full impact of this post today, and if you would indulge me, I'd love you to click on the following YouTube link and listen to Anne Murray sing the following:

A Little Good News

Little Good News (1983)
I rolled out this morning...kids had the morning news show on
Bryant Gumbel was talking about the fighting in Lebanon
Some senator was squawking about the bad economy
It's gonna get worse you see we need a change in policy

There's a local paper rolled up in a rubber band
One more sad story's one more than I can stand
Just once, how I'd like to see the headline say
Not much to print today can't find nothing bad to say

Because...

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'd, nobody burned a single building down
Nobody fired a shot in anger...nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today

I'll come home this evening...I'll bet that the news will be the same
Somebody takes a hostage...somebody steals a plane
How I wanna hear the anchor man talk about a county fair
And how we cleaned up the air...how everybody learned to care

Whoa, tell me...

Nobody was assassinated in the whole Third World today
And in the streets of Ireland all the children had to do was play
And everybody loves everybody in the good old USA
We sure could use a little good news today

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'd, nobody burned a single building down
Nobody fired a shot in anger...nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today.

Astrid and I often dance to this song from 1983, as though dancing it will make a difference in 2011.  When we get to Nobody was assassinated...and Nobody had to die in vain...something happens inside of me.  It's like I hear another feel-good Jennings' story.  And I smile.

A little good news goes a long way, doesn't it!