It occurred to me today that our focus is being taken away from where it ought to be.

WARNING: What I’m about to attempt to discuss in this article is a delicate topic, which is entangled in a couple of other delicate topics. This article could easily be confused with statements that I do not and would not condone, confusing especially for people who might read this without knowing my true heart. I will do my best in what follows to make my point, without being overtly offensive.

On Sunday (two days ago), in Kenosha, Wisconsin, police shot Jacob Blake, an unarmed man, seven times as he was getting into his vehicle, a vehicle that contained his three children.

On February 23, Maud Arbery, an unarmed man on a morning jog, was fatally shot in Glynn County, Georgia.

On May 25, George Floyd was killed by police during his arrest for allegedly using counterfeit currency.

On March 13, Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, inside her own apartment.

Each of these stories is tragic and wrong, and these injustices have enraged a nation. They’ve captured the headlines of news media outlets all over the world. They’ve grabbed our attention, and they’ve begun, after far too long, to have a cumulative effect on some necessary changes.

But, they’re not the whole story.

Now, before you assume that what I mean by that statement is that these stories have different perspectives –mainly, the perspectives of the police officers involved– that should be given some credence, that is not at all what I mean. The police officers, involved in the stories above, are part of a much bigger problem that should be –THAT MUST BE– addressed.

Rather, when I say that those stories are not the whole story, what I mean to say is this: there is more to tell.

* * *

For every injustice that we end up hearing about, for every horrible sin that is committed upon a human anywhere that ends up grabbing the headlines, there are –more than likely– countless others that never get to see the light of day. For every George and Breonna and Maud and Jacob, there are dozens of other stories of people being cruel and evil to each other, to their fellow human beings, and those stories we will probably never hear.

Even so, that’s not even my point.

What outnumbers these stories –the ones about evil that we hear about and the ones about evil that we don’t hear about– are the stories of goodness.

But, you probably won’t hear about those stories, not by watching the sensationalist news media, anyway.

People don’t watch the news outlets to hear about the good stuff that is happening in the world everyday –> the thousands and thousands of good stories that are going on all around us. In the news industry, it goes something like this: “If it bleeds, it leads”.

So, they tell us the stories of hatred and war and racism and police brutality and rape because they know that those stories will make us afraid. Those stories are awful stories and I hate what I hear when I hear about those stories and (maybe this is the point) I hate those people that I hear about in those stories, those awful people who do those awful things.

And, by telling me those awful stories, they manage to distract me.

From the good.

A police officer in Vandalia, Illinois helped a seventy-year-old woman with a flat tire on the side of the road today. You didn’t hear about it.

A teenager in Warrensburg, Missouri raised seven hundred dollars today for the local food pantry for low-income families. You didn’t hear about it.

In Keyes, Oklahoma, a local church pastor married his one-hundredth married couple today. You didn’t hear about it.

In Danville, Kentucky, a grocery store bag-boy gave half of his previous paycheck today to one of his coworkers who is battling Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. You didn’t hear about it.

Just keep watching the programming of the news networks. I’m sure that they just haven’t gotten to it, yet.

* * *

I would never –NOT EVER– suggest that we shouldn’t be paying attention to these horrible injustices, and the countless others like them, that have been grabbing our nation’s attention. We have, for FAR TOO LONG, decided that it was okay to turn a blind eye to the issues that we didn’t want to tackle, that we were too weak to tackle. We will never be able to handle the issues that exist –issues of racism, issues of police brutality, issues of hatred– if we don’t start bringing them into the light.

But…

What we pay attention to, what we focus on, really does make a difference in our perceptions of the world around us.

I know this is true because I can feel myself falling into the darkness when I pay too much attention to what the media would have me looking at. As a matter of fact, I’m becoming more and more convinced that we are all being programmed by the news media, by social media, by any and all media, to focus on the negative. And, I don’t know if that’s something that I want to do anymore.

Of course, this is coming from a white guy whose been living a life of privilege that he is only just now starting to come to terms with. Excuse me, my friends of color who may be reading this, if my call to focus on the positive hits on a nerve of yours that is raw because of the injustices that have been perpetrated against people like you for way too long. Hopefully, in your frustration and outrage, you can agree with me that, all things being equal, it is better to be focused on the positive things in life.

* * *

I guess what I mean to say is this: there is good, going on all around us, all of the time, even in the midst of the bad that is there, too. We have a choice, all of us do. We can chose to focus on what’s wrong with the world or we can focus on what’s working.

The fear-mongers in the media want you to remain ultra-focused on the bad. If you stay ultra-focused on the bad, then you will also have to stay tuned to the media while they offer you their answers. Vote for this guy, he has the answers. Listen to this expert, they have the answers. Stay tuned! After the break, we will welcome our guest who has all of the answers!

Get real.

Granted, we can’t ignore problems with our rose-colored glasses on –I’m not suggesting that– but I’m afraid that too many of us have bought into the lie that everything is broken.

Find the good. Focus on the good. See if you can’t, somehow, replicate that good. Help each other. Love each other. Be there for each other.

Less media (except for this blog; please keep coming here).