Great News!

Fake news! Impeachment! Shootings! Climate! Scammers! Violence! Racism! Fires!

This, my friends, is the nightly news. Hardly ever do you hear, read or see feel-good news—uplifting news, stories of hope and kindness. Lots of people, especially younger generations, don't even watch the news anymore. I don’t blame them.

Recently an animal shelter in Fort Myers, FL was on the local news announcing a “Clear the Shelter” drive. If there were pets left at the shelter at the end of the drive, the animals would have had an unfair ending. The community responded... and every pet was adopted! What a terrific story! So refreshing compared to what else is on the news. We need more stories like this, and more acts of human kindness in general. We tend to forget that we are all human beings, and we're here on Earth for a very short time. Let's do more together.

That goes for companies too...

I don't care for the pharmaceutical companies, or the chain stores that support them, but you have to give CVS credit. It’s been five years since they pulled tobacco products off their shelves. This was a monumental and controversial decision that reflected CVS's commitment to health and certainly risked adverse effects on their bottom line. We barely hear about it anymore.

TOMS will donate more than 100 million pairs of shoes by next year. Wow, that's incredible!

Whole Foods, owned by Amazon, has a giving day once per quarter in which 5% of the day's sales are contributed to community-based organizations. Patagonia sews their commitment to sustainability into the fabric of clothing. This is responsible business and equitable capitalism.

I'm sure many companies are doing more, but do you see it on the news? Do we have a 30-minute news program reporting all the feel-good stories? Years ago, people thought stations that only covered sports or weather or finance could not stand alone, and they were wrong. How about a station that just reports GREAT NEWS. Great News TV: Stories That Make You Feel Good.

My wife and I sent diapers, baby food, water, first aid kits and more to the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian. Yes, it made us feel good. However, we reacted to a tragedy. We should find the need and do something rather than react. We can all make a difference. We need to try harder and give more. We are extremely lucky, and we can do these things. Imagine if we all shifted the world and respond to the negativity with random acts of kindness.

Can we commit to doing this? And be more proactive rather than reactive to help one another? The holiday season is here. Let's be less selfish. Give a turkey to someone in need. Give a toy to a kid who won't otherwise have any under the tree. Help serve meals on Thanksgiving, or year-round for that matter.

My mother would invite us over for holiday dinners, and usually when we would walk into her house, a surprise guest would be at her table for dinner. I'd take her aside and ask “why is this person here? I thought it was just us?" She would respond with either “they had no place to go for the holiday” or something like “she just lost her husband; I didn’t want her eating alone.” She was a wonderful woman.

Share your love. Start now. Do something!