"National Good News Day?" - Doug Powers shares his pipe dream, asks media to cooperate

WorldNetDaily ^ | 4-12-04 | Doug Powers

[WrightOnTarget]

The way that Americans deal with crisis and stress is impressive.

Let's face it – just before you turn on the news or glance at the front page of the paper, your face is probably covered with a cringe expectant of upcoming revulsion, as if you knew you were about to see Gene Shalit naked. In today's world, we're tense, nervous, apprehensive and ... still quite nice to each other. It's time for the media to spend a day pointing that out.

Politics and politicians are fluid, and subject to change every so often (excluding Sen. Byrd), but the American commitment to politeness is handed down from generation to generation.

History proves that we're even nice to people in places where we were fighting, such as paying for the rebuilding of Western Europe after World War II. The "Marshall Plan" was a mid-20th century epic version of "Extreme Home Makeover," and uniquely American.

Sure, there are still terrible things that happen domestically. People kill each other in our cities and flip each other off on our highways – and if I ever find out who is encouraging Carrot-Top, heaven help him. These things all need to be aggressively addressed, but it's still shocking, given how much stress we're under, how so very cordial, good-natured and friendly the vast majority of us remain.

There are plenty of reasons for us to lock the doors and never come out. Constant terror threats have some of us knocking back enough Kaopectate to stop up Old Faithful. There are missiles pointed at us from all manner of psychopaths, with one Pomeranian-headed Munchkinite lunatic warming up in the nuclear bullpen. That sound you hear is Enrico Fermi knocking his knees together.

We've been told to stock up on bottled water, generators, duct tape, potassium iodide tablets, canned foods and batteries. To top it off, people hunkered down in concrete bunkers 500 feet below the surface of the earth and, wearing lead-lined skivvies, have told us there is no reason to alter our daily routines.

When we fly, we're subjected to electronic – and sometimes actual – strip searches. While on the plane, we're constantly looking at shoes trying to spot a heel with a fuse hanging out of it, and hoping that the guy snoring in a deep slumber in the seat next to us isn't the Air Marshal. After the flight, we rent a car and impulsively check the trunk for things left by the previous driver, such as a jacket or a suitcase nuke.

Americans have a glorious history of – time and time again – overcoming stress to remain collectively nice.

During the strife and bloodshed of the Revolutionary War, the nation was split into thirds. A third of the colonists demanded independence, a third of them wanted to keep a Parliament-mandated tea time, and a third were the 1776 equivalent of people who were plunked down in front of Playstations stuffing their faces with Cheetos.

The victory in the Revolutionary War was, of course, facilitated by British insistence upon dressing their soldiers in bright red. Apparently London clothiers weren't able to get the uniforms adorned on the front with a giant, flashing neon "bullseye" sewn together in time for the battle of Saratoga.

Through all the succeeding years, the wars, struggles, civil unrest and global upheavals, Americans remained basically split into thirds, but are one when it comes to being good people. Sure, every time a car backfires we have to soak our shorts in Spray 'n Wash, but we soon get right back to overshadowing our nervousness with an instinctive geniality that only a free people can have. We're free to be complete jerks if we want, and knowing this adds to the sincerity of the niceness.

The media should reward all polite, courteous and dutiful Americans with a day of rest from stress. Come on newspapers, network and cable news shows, columnists and radio hosts: How about a day of "good news"?

Let the lead story be a guy who stopped to change an old lady's tire on the Ohio Turnpike, an English instructor staying late for no extra money to teach a kid to read, or a soldier saving a life instead of taking one. They're everywhere out there, deserving of recognition and the rest of us could use a short break – a brief hiatus from the violence and misery just long enough to remind us that the good still vastly overwhelms the bad.

Americans have earned a full day where the only bloodshed their families risk exposure to is during the hockey highlights on Sportscenter. Will it happen? Of course not. But it's nice to think about once in a while.