Dear Editor,

In the news business these days, bad news, especially sensational bad news, seem to take precedence over good news. No one with a clear mind is ever going to admit that Jamaica is not producing a lot of bad news these days. With Parliament, the lingering Dudus affair, the appalling murder rate, the shoddy sale of Air Jamaica, and all the other rivers of daily unpleasantness, the tendency to focus on the forces of evil seems irresistible.

But there must be an equal stream of random acts of exemplary goodness going on in Jamaica. The grace and honour of the Wolmer’s Boys’ School student who let his friend win a gold medal could not be an isolated case of thoughtfulness and fidelity. Both boys must have come from families that respect the eternal bond inherent in a pledge.

And those families are perhaps not unique. Surely each day neighbours help their neighbours spontaneously without seeking notoriety or material reward. So the appeal is not necessarily that bad news should be downplayed, but rather that good news should be given more prominence lest we lose our perspective. Moreover, regardless of the reality, newspapers and other news media should not be uniformly depressing all the time. That is not good for the national psyche.

Frederick Constable

Atlanta, Georgia

USA