England 2 Germany 0!

If you are English or care about England, English Football, English History and/or English Demons, this is the ultimate Good News story!

Finally, England beats Germany in a game that matters.  Fate pits them against each other in the knockout round of 16 in this year's Euro championship.  It could also be called Decades of an Inferiority Complex vs the Teutonic Bullies Who Always Win.

For 75 minutes it looked like my English friend's worst fears would again come to pass.  If it stays tied we may "Oh God, please save us" go to a penalty shootout.  "Not again."

But it didn't come to pass.  Raheem Sterling scored.  And then Harry Kane scored.  It was 2-0 and the game was over.  The demons had been exorcised.  Ecstasy reigned at Wembley and far beyond.

Indeed, Good News!

LGBTQ Good News!

At school the trans boy wanted to use the men's bathroom.  The school board said "No can do."  The boy filed a discrimination suit against the school board and the court ruled in his favor.

End of story?  Not quite.  The school board appealed and the case ended up in the Supreme Court.  The result, published yesterday: the court upheld the lower court ruling.  So the trans boy can use the toilet of his choice. 

The boy (now man, since this case had been bouncing around between courts since 2015) said, "I am glad that my years-long fight to have my school see me for who I am is over."

Good News for today!

Good News From Broadway!

For the first time in 471 days a Broadway theater played host to a capacity crowd.  On Saturday 1,721 vaccinated fans filled the St. James Theater to see "Springsteen on Broadway."  

Springsteen greeted the crowd with "I am here tonight to provide proof of life," and he did just that.

Maybe the world is really beginning to look like it did before Covid struck (at least in the wealthy countries.  The rest of the world is still suffering big time.)  Stephen Colbert welcomed his audience back a couple of weeks ago.  And more is on the way.

More Good News!

Tokyo Story!

My Good News story today is to call your attention to a masterpiece from the past: "Tokyo Story," a movie made 68 years ago by the Japanese genius, Jasujirō Ozu.  I re-watched it last night and was reminded how timeless a work of art can be.

The story is not complicated.  An elderly couple visit their children who live far away.  We discover what their relationships have been when they were all younger and what they are today.  In simplistic but powerful language and actions the truth is revealed.

The way the film was made, a straightforward camera usually placed near the floor so that we look directly at the people sitting on tatami mats and often framed as a tight shot of someone's face, enhances this truth.

I saw "Tokyo Story" on a DVD from Netflix.  I recommend you give yourself a Good News gift and do the same.

Good News From the Art World!

On Monday a monumental work of art will go on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  It is a 10-panel fresco created by Diego Rivera for the Golden Gate Exposition in 1940 and mostly hidden from view across town at City College of San Francisco since then.

It has taken four years, millions of dollars and the skill of engineers, architects, historians, and many others to move "Pan American Unity," all 30 tons, 74-foot-wide-by-22-foot-tall of it to SFMOMA, where it will stay until 2023, when it will be returned to the college.

Rivera's purpose in painting this mural was to depict a continent linked by creativity, a metaphoric bridge between the Mexican culture and the tech culture of the United States.  It is indeed monumental and worth the trouble to make it available to us all.

A Good News story from the Art World!

More Good News!

Once the Taliban regain power in Afghanistan (a question of "when" not "if,") what will be the fate of those Afghans who worked with the U.S. during these past 20 years?  Will we do anything to save them and their families from deadly retaliation?

Finally, we are told that positive steps are being taken on their behalf.  Yesterday it was announced that we would relocate these people to safe places while they apply for entry to the U.S.  We're talking about more than 18,000 Afghans who worked for us as interpreters, drivers, engineers, security guards and clerks.  And it is estimated that they have 53,000 family members.

Dealing with this is a huge undertaking.  Will it happen as planned?  Will we live up to our moral commitment to provide safe haven for them?  Time will tell.  But for now this first step is Good News!

Bonus Good News:  A New York court has suspended Rudy Giuliani's law license because of the lies he told in trying to get Trump's defeat overturned.

More Good News!

Good news in the Sports Section.  With 7 runs in the 13th inning the San Francisco Giants won their league-leading 48th game yesterday.  Who woulda thought?  Picked to be third in the division behind the Dodgers and Padres, the Giants have been over-achieving from the start.

Will they continue this run as the season wears on?  Dunno, but its possible.  With Covid still lingering, I hadn't planned on going to any games this year, but I'm rethinking this decision.

In the meantime, More Good News!

On the Bright Side!

I'm going to go in a different direction for a while.  Rather than focus on the dark side (all too easy these days) I'm going to look for good news to write about.  So here's something for today:

Connecticut has legalized recreational marijuana.  So now it is OK to use and cultivate pot.  In addition, thousands of past convictions for possession will be expunged.

Connecticut is the 19th state to take this step, and the fifth to do so this year.  So let's hear it for the Nutmeg State.  Good news!  Way to go!

Civil War Two!

You may not have noticed, but our second Civil War has begun.

The first battle of Civil War Two was on January 6, when insurrectionists attacked the Capitol.  Since then, the evidence is mounting that we're headed in the wrong direction.  

Democracy is on the defensive.

Trust in our institutions is eroding.

Congress is in a partisan logjam.

The Supreme Court will not save us.  Quite the reverse, the current Court can be counted on to endorse and accelerate what is tearing us apart - human rights, guns, voting, race relations, abortion, politics - and more.

Violence will be the hallmark of Civil War Two.  To think that we're on a peaceful path for settling our disagreements is a pipe dream.

I'd like to think that in the end the good guys will win, and we'll preserve our fairy tale narrative of America as the shining city on the hill.  Not likely.  The bad guys have history on their side.  Empires, civilizations, countries, have a short shelf life.  We've had a good run (unless you're black or brown or queer or seen as the other), and for that we can be grateful.

I realize that in my youth I had an assumption that we were on the right side, that we should be proud of what we stood for, America was a noble dream.  I was happy to tell that story to people around the world.  So how do I feel about that today when my youth is a distant memory?  

I feel betrayed!  My idealism has been replaced by cynicism.  I am dismayed by what I see.  And I feel helpless to do anything about it.  I'd like it to be otherwise, but that's the way it looks to me.