What a strange summer this has been: destructive floods, stifling heat waves, and dire predictions that planet Earth is heating up to a degree that won’t support life as we know it. Only some insects will thrive.
Turning on the television news offers no solace. There is Trump again, spewing his diatribes against all who have built a case against him. When I turn off the television, sick of his rants, I feel guilty. I tell myself I have to know the news so I can fight back. I shouldn’t give him center stage, basking in applause at his rallies.
Is there any good news anywhere?
Yes, I found some in a New York Times column written by Nicholas Kristof. I tried to memorize some of his optimistic statistics in preparation for the days ahead.
Kristof writes that worldwide there were significant reductions in poverty, disease and early death. For example, in the poor country of Sierra Leone, Kristof writes that in the past, almost half the country’s children died before reaching adulthood. Today, 96 percent of these children survive into adulthood. What an achievement!
Think if you were a new parent in that country — and you no longer had to fear that your infant would soon die. That is like a gift from God.
Childbirth statistics there are equally impressive. Pregnancy and childbirth deaths have fallen 74% since the year 2000.
These figures tell us that progress is tangible and achievable in parts of the world that had been neglected in the past. People strived hard to achieve these changes. They had a vision, they had a plan and they had hope.
They worked to have health centers in the country managed to provide more prenatal care, and they trained more midwives. It may sound simplistic, but that is precisely what we need here, today, in our country — vision and hope to heal the wounds we have inflicted on our planet and on ourselves.
