There's still good in the world

Every purchase creates a kinder world.

Years ago I sat in the office of my Spanish professor at college, and we were discussing a trip I had taken to Israel on my own a few years earlier.

I mentioned to her that my trip came just a week after the TWA flight 847 from Athens to Rome was hijacked by Shiite Hezbollah terrorists who were looking for "Jewish-sounding names."

My flight to Israel was transferring through Rome so it certainly caught my eye back then. In relaying this story to my professor, what I remember most is her response.

"I have always believed that as long as stories such as hijackings are on the front page of the newspaper then the world is still good. It's when those stories move to the back page, that's when we are in trouble."

Fast-forward a few decades and we have a tragedy such as the one yesterday in Orlando. While not minimizing the horrific act of terror this was, nor the level of tragedy and effect it will have on survivors, family members, relatives, and others, what I do know is that it is still front page news.

We see stories like this on a more regular basis -- perhaps it is the 24-hour news cycle where the top five stories are repeated throughout the day and that drives the negative into our subconscious, or perhaps it is the impact of social media where stupid people now have a platform to share their hate and put their stupidity on full display. Or, perhaps it is a combination of both and it is a perpetuating cycle that simply becomes a circular argument.

Whatever the reasons, I offer that these stories are still front page news. And, I would offer that the words of my professor over thirty years ago still ring true, "the world is still good."

Sometimes it just doesn't feel that way.

houston@figment-consulting.com