Finding good news in the bad

By Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

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There's no sugar coating it.

Bad news has followed bad news.

Unlike the dominant bad news four years ago, the catastrophic tornadoes and floods, this bad news is manmade.

First we had the collapse of Peregrine Financial Group in Cedar Falls following founder Russell Wasendorf Sr.'s attempted suicide and admitted fraud.

Then we had two innocent girls, Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins, apparently taken by person or persons unknown while on a midsummer bike ride.

One week later, a man opened fire in a pair of movie theaters in Aurora, Colo., killing at least 12 and wounding dozens more.

Finally, a once-revered head football coach, Penn State's Joe Paterno, was disgraced and his program dealt the severest of penalties after 14 years of institutional inaction while one of his top assistants repeatedly sexually abused young boys.

Some of this bad news is due to human failings. Some of it is negligence. A large portion of it is just plain evil.

If anything is to be learned out of all these terrible developments, at least two things stand out.

No matter how rich, powerful, famous or influential someone is, they still have to do the right thing.

The second is that violence against the innocent, particularly our young people, is the most depraved, despicable kind of crime and must never be tolerated under any circumstances.

Yet, despite these diabolical acts, we must have hope. We must strive on. We must not lose sight of goodness and justice.

And we do have heroes to look to.

A young Cedar Falls sailor left virtually limbless by a devastating bomb blast in Afghanistan, Taylor Morris, is now walking, on his own power, on a pair of artificial legs. He is learning to manipulate an artificial left arm and right hand. He has the support of a loving family, a young woman who has never left his side and admiration from his state, his community and his president.

This is not intended to place too much on Taylor Morris' strong shoulders. But, like him, we must pull ourselves up and fight back, and never give up.

Our values, institutions, communities, families and sense of security have been shaken. They are all worth fighting for nonetheless.

And many are doing just that, fighting that good fight. For if we look hard enough we can find steadfast heroes like Taylor Morris all around us. Good parents. Dedicated public servants, not the least of which are the scores of law officers trying to find Lyric and Elizabeth. Good employees who labor with dignity and good employers who dignify their labor with a decent living in tough times. And great farmers who struggle through devastating drought to feed the world.

Yes there is evil in the world. But there is still an overwhelming amount of good - and good, ordinary people who rise to the challenge of dark times simply by doing the right thing in a million different ways every single day.

As more than one of our leaders has observed, such deeds can illuminate the world.