Good news, everyone!

I’ve been having trouble figuring out what to write about this week because I’m not particularly upset or annoyed at anything.

It could be that I am slightly distracted, having just entered into an intensive Chinese language program, or maybe I’m just losing my edge.

Because I’m not angry, I thought I would compile a list of goings-on that are signs of good times.

1. The Pacers beat the Heat on Saturday

Even though I don’t really understand the concept of sports fandom in general, I actually enjoy watching basketball.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re born and raised in
Indiana.  

As a Hoosier, it is a point of pride that the Pacers are still in this thing, especially since, from my understanding, LeBron James is evil and we must defeat him at all costs.

2. The Spencer Pride Festival

It’s cool to see a small Indiana town disprove the stereotype of rural intolerance.

Spencer shows that you don’t have to be in a big city to find accepting neighbors who recognize that people are people and love is love.

Beyond accepting the LGBTQI members of their community, Spencer celebrates them.

I hope that this kind of inclusion can continue to grow across Indiana, and our legislature will stop trying to pass marriage amendments.

3. A Cheerios ad features an interracial family

As Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court case making interracial marriage bans unconstitutional, was decided 46 years ago, one would have expected this kind of familial depiction to be par for the course by now. Still, the ad is cute and a sign of progress, no matter how stilted.

Though some terrible people flooded the ad’s YouTube page with racist comments, most people recognize that those commenters are terrible people, which I’m going to count as a win for America.

4. Indianapolis was ranked the No. 1 city for college graduates

Apparently college graduates living in Indianapolis are unemployed at the incredibly low rate of 1.9 percent, which is great news for recent IU graduates. Hopefully rankings like these will ease Indiana officials’ worry about “brain drain” and attract college grads to our capital.  

Perhaps an increase in the twenty-something population could also spur more government policies that young people support. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself on that one.

5. We’re finally starting to understand why United States healthcare is so expensive.

Recent reports have shown that U.S. healthcare costs are arbitrary, the cost of the same procedure varying wildly based on location. Prices are usually determined in negotiations between healthcare providers and insurers, and it turns out that insurers have little motivation to bargain prices down.

While this is bad news on the surface, I’m excited that the problems in our system are getting teased out.

Hopefully these revelations will inspire effective solutions.

I know that not all of these items are completely good, and some of them point to deep underlying problems in our cultural and government systems, but to me they signify a step in the right direction.

It’s easy to get bogged down by bad news. Sometimes we need to look on the bright side of things.

­— casefarr@indiana.edu