YOUNG VOICES: Bring out the good in each other

It's about time we all start to appreciate each other for what we are, which is being human. Too often I hear stories of negativity and hate instead of love and admiration. Why are human beings so interested in negativity?

Through my 22 years of existence I have been bombarded with information about my peers that is generally negative. In high school these tales were interesting; perhaps they made me feel better about myself. These stories didn't make me a better person, and they weren't framed to glorify the subject. They were simply outlets of hate so we could all gossip and belittle others for our own insecurities.

For me, those days are in the past. I no longer wish to know about the hardships of someone else's life through the frame of an outside party. I do not care. If the story is not about a person's successes or your own failures, I do not want to engage in conversation.

It sickens me whenever I turn on the television news. All I tend to see are stories about murder, robbery, fraud and the seven-day forecast. It's all bad. Occasionally there's a feel-good story thrown in the mix to keep hope alive regarding the idea of goodness, but for the most part we are like mosquitoes attracted to light. We love negativity. The concept of someone out there going through a struggle must feel so good to some people.

I generally believe the American public would rather linger in its own filth while hearing about the dilemmas of others, rather than finding inspiration through success stories and the road these individuals took to achieve their status.

The badness needs to go away. The put-downs, the gossip, the robe and gavel we all enjoy wearing, need to be exalted from our minds. The world has too much to offer for us to be sitting around with negative thoughts about how so-and-so did this and why they are so stupid for that.

Instead of clinging to the badness, let's try and bring out the goodness in each other. Give out compliments as if they were free. Little things like a compliment or a nice gesture can go a long way in someone's day.

In the end, Jackie DeShannon said it best in 1965. "What the world needs now is love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of."

Kyle Malec, of St. John, is a senior at Purdue University Calumet. The opinion expressed in this column is the writer's and not necessarily that of The Times.