Mr. Editor, I expect a lighthouse

Every morning, we wake up to face the challenges of a new day with positive intent and resolve. I believe morning is the most productive time of the day, when the mind is at its sharpest. That is probably why the maxims of 'early to rise and early to bed' and 'studying early in the morning' are preached. If that is so, then the morning should be a time spent in creative thought and positive sentiment. But open a newspaper and you are subjected to a torrent of horrid "news" - scams, swindles, killings, tragedies, each representing a negative sentiment. The more negative the "news", bigger is the headline and coverage. You are told in your face that the world that your good intentions don't stand a chance in this world as it is potrayed. Imagine being badgered day in and day out with such a negative stream of ideas. The collective positive sentiment and creativity of a people is battered.

Why should such negative sentiment be "news"? Why shouldn't some small novel invention useful to some people be bigger news that some miscreants pulling of an ugly stunt by defacing a statue of some obscure "leader"? Because our newspapers are driven by the fear of the masses. The fear of the system, of the stranger, of the unknown. Mr. Editor, what we want is not a buccaneer's ship striking a dark fear into our hearts, but a lighthouse that will show the way to create a better people. That can be done by publishing stories of achievement and creativity, of grit and hope. Encourage those who deserve credit, trash the stuntmen to Page 3. Ofcourse, we cannot live in a state of self-denial about everything undesirable that exists, but it need not be blown out of proportions. It is not that people do not want to hear good news news. I bet if there is a small article on the front page of a newspaper highlighting an achievement, people tend to read that first than a mundane negative news.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Kahlil Gibran

Positive news can shape your attitude, since the positiveness is then all around you.

There are some nascent efforts to this end - Positive News, Positive News Network, Positive Press, but there is still a long way to go.