Positive press

People seem to have a sick fascination with things that are morbid. The consequences of this fascination rarely affect me. At worst, my four-hour drive to Chicago will become a 4 1/2-hour drive because everyone wants to slow down to gawk at a car wreck on the side of the road. \nOn a larger scale, the media and the public feed into each other. The masses want to know every dirty little detail about every political cover-up, juicy sex scandal, cold-blooded murder and fallen Hollywood star in rehab. The media delivers, and the public eats it up. As they say in the business: “If it bleeds, it leads.” \nAs a result, people seem to be largely unaware that, while the world can indeed be a sad place, occasionally, there’s some good news to report too. \nI saw several positive stories in the news this morning. Here’s a sampling.\nJordan and Egypt have formed a “contact group” to discuss a peace plan that was adopted by the Arab League in 2002, and Israel has said it will consider it. The plan offers normal working diplomatic relations with Arab nations in exchange for a select number of crucial peace moves. Skeptics may be thinking, so what? Granted there have been numerous efforts at peace in the Middle East that have failed. However, I would still much rather read about a proposed peace offer than airstrikes or a suicide bombing. \nAlso in the Middle East, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says his intelligence services have confirmed that the British Broadcasting Corp. reporter, Alan Johnston, who was seized at gunpoint in Gaza six weeks ago is in fact alive. This is especially good news considering that on Sunday, an unknown militant group claimed they killed him. It’s also interesting to note that journalists in Palestine and all over the Middle East have come together in solidarity to hold demonstrations calling for Johnston’s release. A member of Abbas’ Fatah party jailed in Israel, Marwan Barghouti, has also called for the journalist’s release.\nWhile some may be disheartened at the Ku Klux Klan’s decision to march in Bloomington, good things for race relations are happening on the other side of the pond. The European Union just passed a law that makes inciting hatred or violence against a group or individual based on their race, nationality, ethnic origin or religion punishable by a minimum one-year jail sentence. This is a monumental ruling considering that hate speech is notorious for inciting hate crimes and in some cases genocide. We should applaud the EU in this decision. \nThe West African country of Cameroon has announced that the government will give free treatment to all HIV and AIDS patients in the nation. The program will cost $11.9 million and provide 47,000 people with the critical medical attention that they need to combat the deadly disease.\nSee? Good things are happening all around us. Just keep your eyes, ears and Web browsers open.