Even though I watch the news every day, it’s sure getting hard to turn on the TV. Yesterday’s headlines alone blared reports of a fatal shooting at Purdue University and the threat of female terrorists, “Black Widows” they’re called, at the upcoming winter olympics in Sochi, Russia.
When the news is filled with reports of violence and instability, it’s easy to feel that a threat lurks around every corner in our lives. Admittedly, it sometimes makes me a little relieved to live in my small corner of the world where I have few neighbors and people still wave from their trucks when you meet them on a gravel road.
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I understand that bad news attracts viewers, but it’s unfortunate that those kinds of reports could overwhelm all the good stories that happen around us on a personal level.
My neighbors at Upland Hutterite Colony are one such story. These kind folks are great neighbors who swing by with their snow plow and clear our driveway every time it snows.
Another is the girls on my little sister’s basketball team, who root each other on throughout the season, despite injuries and tough games.
How about the upcoming auction at the Black Hills Stock Show in Rapid City, SD, that raises money to help keep local fire departments and rural hospitals in remote communities open for business?
Then there’s the group of elementary kids from Wyoming who randomly donated their spare change and favorite toys to a ranching family in South Dakota that was devastated by October's winter storm Atlas.
There are plenty of these untold stories of everyday heroes who are important in our lives. We need to take more time to celebrate these unsung heroes to help balance out all the bad news in this world.
This may seem like a big departure from my usual postings about beef and the cattle business, but I think it’s important that we stop and cherish all the goodness that exists around us. That includes our loved ones, family, neighbors, civil servants like our police and volunteer fire departments, etc.
When I turn on the morning news tomorrow, I’ll likely be bombarded again with more bad news. We should be concerned about that, but we also need to remember that goodness and kindness exist everywhere. My hat is off to all those unsung heroes who deserve attention, too. We all need to keep working to make the world a better place.
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