One of the many topics that people are divided on is the news. Some people avoid it at all costs because they say it's all negative and they don't need that in their life, while others always turn it on in their cars or as they start their days or as they end their days, and of course there are people like myself who are in the middle who aren't news focused but make an effort to at least pay some attention to what's going on in the world.

I was reading one of the news emails I get today and it featured a section from the writer and her fellow news people that talked about how they recognize how much negative stuff is in the news and they know how hard it is to hear that and invited the subscribers to share their good news stories. But it got me thinking about how difficult it must be to always be in danger reporting on natural disasters or bombings or wars or death, yet that's what many of them do. Which of course brought up the question of why the focus of the news is largely on the negative.

I think the news is largely negative or at the very least reports on challenges and changes because that's reality. As much as we would like to live in a world where there aren't issues and all we talk about is how it is sunny outside and we love our jobs and we have the world's best partner and our kids and pets are perfect little angels and we've got more money than we know what to do with and everyone just gets along so well!! I know, you can feel the sarcasm coming out of those words, right? Which brings us back to the reason why the news has to be mostly focused on changes and challenges, and that's because it's what goes on around us whether we like it or not.

Do I think the news can do a better job reporting on more of the good than they do, yes. Do I think the news can do a better job of sharing multiple perspectives and clearly researched information, often, yes. But I also think that we need to recognize the role that some of the news plays, and that's alerting us to happenings, information and people that we need to know about and do something about. We need to know if we should send some of our resources to people and countries in need, we need to know if there's a big storm coming that we should put away outdoor furniture so it doesn't become a flying weapon, we need to know if there's a virus that might be headed our way, we need to know if people we supposedly hired or put into leadership positions are not leading in ways that are good for our health or don't have our best interests at heart, we need to know if there's danger in the food we're about to put on the table, we need to know about amber alerts and persons of interest so we can help police get connected with them if we see something, and the list goes on.

That list is why I think we should pay some attention to the news and should give some support to the news people rather than always criticizing them because it's only when we know that information that we have the ability to do anything to hopefully avoid a worse situation in the future. Not sharing about the bad stuff that happens doesn't make it go away. Not sharing gives people the place to feel comfortable with doing bad things because clearly no one cares, and not sharing means people in need don't get their needs met because no one knows they have needs. Instead of focusing on the fact that yes, it's negative or not always good news, why don't we focus on changes that need to happen or options we have now that we know about these situations?