AES15 “Uplifting” News

I think we’ve all seen lighthearted stories being shared around of heartwarming and inspirational news, they can be stories about a local dog being adopted, or of our national team winning a competition. In a world where it seems most news we receive is horrible and depressing, we all need those little tidbits of uplifting news to remind us that there’s good things happening in this world too. But recently, a large number of these kinds of stories of people overcoming adversity actually hides a pretty dark dystopian reality in the background when you think about it for more than 5 seconds. These are some headlines that present deep problems with our society lf you look closer.

Teachers pooled together and donated their sick days for their coworker’s fight against cancer.

Dedicated man walks 18 miles every day just to get to work.

This 11 year-old started a trash business to save money for college.

An 85 year-old man goes back to working at McDonald’s to help support his disabled son.

Texas inmates pool $53.000 for Hurricane Harvey victims.

Inspiring teen immediately goes back to work after a car accident.

Woman books hotel rooms for homeless people during a polar vortex.

Brave little girl sets up a lemonade stand to help pay for her mom’s cancer treatment.

I saw a sarcastic tweet that really captures the energy of the whole situation “Inspiring! This CEO Saw One of His Employees Digging Through the Dumpster for Food, So He Bought Her a Headlamp to Make It Easier to Sift Through the Garbage!”

Most people just consume these headlines at face value and don’t question the horrible circumstances that allowed these things to happen in the first place. I don’t know how anyone sees these stories only as uplifting and inspirational, while ignoring the terrible social and economic problems that are crippling our society. While there are truly admirable, selfless and truly amazing acts performed by these people, the media reporting it never looks past this part. All of these stories are treated as individual unrelated cases of overcoming hardship, not as the inevitable results of a flawed system perpetuated by those in power.

We as a society need to better understand that these “heartwarming” stories would not be necessary in a society that values human life and guarantees our rights to food, shelter, health and education. All of the strife and hardship that these people faced and fought to overcome are a product of a system that does not care about any of us. It’s up to us whether to accept this dark dystopian reality as forever, or we can change it for the better together.