Hot Off The Press

News dominates our daily lives through tv, radio, papers, magazines, the web, and even social media. Everyday our gates are flooded with news stories from around the globe, each one bearing it's own weight of emotion. In a world filled with saddening, heartbreaking, blood-curdling and gut-wrenching stories, sometimes the light-hearted stories are often over looked. In a way, we all are a little bit jaded. I myself have always looked to news stories to not just educate, but to push my understanding and to challenge my own beliefs, regardless of the topic, which often leaves me angry and wrapped around a feeling of helplessness. But until recently, I never really realized exactly how heart felt and warm fuzzy-filled our local news could be.

The other day, Minnesota news came up during a conversation with a few individuals from Milwaukee. The first words out of one person's mouth was, "it's like you all live in a candyland up here". Perplexed by this statement, I asked my friend to elaborate. He continued to say how in Milwaukee the news is filled with riots, shootings, robberies and violent acts nearly every single day. "When I turned on the news here, the biggest topic outside of the state fair, and what was going to be new on-a-stick this year, was the story about a puppy who was taken from a pet store." he stated. He continued to explain that the puppy was brought back right away and the news station was going to follow the little guy's story until he was rightfully purchased by the perfect family. He furthered his recap by telling me the weather man talked for five minutes about a month he made up. A summer-fall combo month, sept-ober, or something to that nature. "It's like a real-life Pleasantville in this city" he added.

I giggled, rolled my eyes, and started to tell him that his recap must be a total exaggeration, but then I stopped. I started reflecting on our local news, recalling the local news I have seen in countless other cities, and realized he was right. Our news is much more peaches n' cream than the news of other cities across the nation.

I started reflecting on all the stories I have heard in recent months and all of them had the same theme, community. Our news shares stories about firemen who prevented neighborhood tragedies, saved lives, and are being honored by those communities with one year anniversary BBQs. Our news covers stories about old wool mills being put back into business and providing people with the opportunity to return to a company that has been such a major part of their town history, and heart. And our news covers stories about festival after festival, the heritage behind each one, and how so many citizens come out to support them and have a jolly good old-fashioned time. Our news truly does focus on the good, the community.

I couldn't help but smile at this realization. And while we still do have disturbing stories air from time to time, our local news knows just what is most important, us and those around us. Our community. And although most of us do not stick our head in the sand (I like to think we are well aware of what else is going on in the world around us), with so many glasses half empty in the world it is nice to know the one closet to me is half full.

So from now on when I get home from work, before I kick off my stilettos, I am going to turn on and soak in our community based Minnesota news. Because occasionally, it is okay to have things be just as rosy as my lipstick.