Looking for the Light!

When I began reading today's newspapers I thought I'd focus on finding some bright spots rather than the usual gloom and doom that seem to predominate.  It's Sunday, so the papers are thick.  Surely there will be plenty to choose from.

Wrong!  It was climate disasters and predictions of worse to come, wars, famine, killing, democracy in peril, political gridlock, etc., etc.  Depressing.  But finally I did find something that was a ray of sunshine.  Nicholas Kristof had written a column called "A Farewell to Readers, With Hope."

After 37 years with the New York Times, he is leaving to run for Governor in his home state of Oregon.  He says that after covering human suffering and depravity, genocide, war, poverty and injustice he still believes that "We are an amazing species, and we can do better."

He give examples like a young woman who was a hero in the face of the Darfur genocide, cites statistics of people emerging from extreme poverty, 325,00 people obtaining electricity every day, 200,000 getting access to clean drinking water for the first time, and more.

Kristof doesn't shy away from the horror he has seen and reported.  But he doesn't let atrocities determine how he chooses to see the world,  He has the humanity to see the light that can so easily be hidden or overwhelmed by the bad stuff.

Good for Nick Kristof.  He is a worthy role model for us all.