Prologue – As a consequence of the incessant barrage of bad news (war, conflicts, terrorism and empty political promises.), THE WORDWRIGHT is going to attempt to write about the GOOD news. At least for a while, if not regularly, occasionally for sure – only GOOD news will be our priority.

The rookie news reporter is told, “You don’t report on a house that is not burning down.” Seems simple enough but do you only have to report just the bad news? As I began working on essays about GOOD news, the phrase “There’s Good News Tonight” came to mind and as some writers do, I headed for the Internet and sought out that phrase on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The man behind this phrase was Gabriel Heatter. Gabriel Heatter did one better than that rookie news reporter in the first line of this paragraph – when he needed a lot of comfort himself, as he admitted later, he picked himself up and seemed able to pick others up as well! (Gabriel Heatter was a top news broadcaster back in the 1930’s and 1940’s whose audience expanded when station WOR became the flagship station of the Mutual Broadcasting System.)

As often is the case in life, yet another phrase, “Laugh clown laugh” comes to mind and who knows how many clowns paraded around looking silly to make people laugh were perhaps at the bottom of their own self-image struggle – but they had to make others laugh. We can be grateful that people like Gabriel Heatter were around to give those who sat in their living rooms listening to the news during World War II, during a particularly discouraging time, American forces had sunk a Japanese destroyed and this bit of “good news” prodded Heatter to open his evening commentary, “Good evening, everyone – there is good news tonight.”

Gabriel Heatter was also well known for his uplifting good news for every alcoholic in 1939 when he gave the first national broadcast exposure in April of that year to a burgeoning self-help group, Alcoholics Anonymous. There were crepe paper hangers in those days too, as the critic wrote, “Disaster has no cheerier greeting than gleeful, gloating Gabriel Heatter.” His positive delivery was so contagious that when World War II finally ended, first in Europe and later in Japan,”…there were probably millions who would not have believed it until they heard it from Heatter.” (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, gets credit for many of these details.)

THERE IS ALWAYS GOOD NEWS…

But it takes a better man or woman to find it and tell about it. I personally found this true when I was asked to be a judge in a local science fair last year. Judges, for some reason, are hard to find. The organization behind science fair activities believe that not only do they need specific individuals who hold qualifications appropriate to judge specific projects, they want people who can offer encouragement to eager students as well – those were my main qualifications as I do not hold a degree in any scholastic science subjects. One particular fact I discovered when working with those other judges – they were quality people and through their expertise they were there to see the good in those young minds and between the two obvious levels of qualifications (mine and the professional) we judges might have been just the thing to keep those students digging and striving to become better scholars. It was a time for GOOD NEWS, not bitter reminders of a flailing society, they can see that everyday on the TV news (?) programs.

I was awarded the “GOOD EGG AWARD”

I belong to the American Amateur Press Association and in recognition of my efforts in publishing an electronic newsletter for the membership, a lady who lives on Long Island, New York, thought I was a candidate to receive the “GOOD EGG AWARD”. If you don’t know what that is, a brief explanation is in order. Long Island is noted for having beaches with stones of unique descriptions, some flat and round stones, and to the creative mind, look a lot like a fried egg. So, now I have a cherished plaque-like flat stone, with another stone cemented on the top of the flat stone resembling a yellow-yoke topped fried egg. June Bassemir made my day when she mailed me my “Good Egg Award”. Perhaps you need to look around and see someone who needs “noticed” and give them some GOOD NEWS in the times when nothing but bad news seems to be present. June has awarded some twenty-five GOOD EGG awards – she notices good news and does something about it!

Take a look around you and LOOK FOR SOME GOOD NEWS. Perhaps some group or individual needs noticed and praised for their good work. Forget the TV tonight, and take a fast, as it were, from the gloom and doom fed to us and if you listen close, perhaps you can still hear Gabriel Heatter, say, “Ah, there’s good news tonight!”

THE WORDWRIGHT

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