There is no getting around it. There is still a great deal of pain and sadness in the world right now. That makes it all the more important to look for the signs that people still have goodness inside of them. The Happiness Press doesn’t want you to ignore the ills of the world, but knowing good still exists can help to remind you what you’re fighting for. A recent study showed just that – that people will generally try to do what’s right, even when there’s nothing in it for them. The Happiness Press wants you to know that people are inherently good.
Raise your voice
If you think that “kids today” are only worried about TikTok and Fortnite, you need to know about Stefan Perez. He’s a 16-year-old who lives in Detroit and decided to join the peaceful protests brought about by the death of George Floyd. What he didn’t realize was the impact he was about to make on his whole community.
Somehow, Stefan, ended up with a megaphone. He used it to encourage people to heed the 8 pm curfew that was active at that time. Stefan went to his knees in the middle of a street, imploring people to honor Floyd while avoiding any violence on the side of the protestors. He led people in marching, kept them together, and played a part in getting everyone home safe that evening. The mayor of Detroit commended him publicly and personally. Stefan credits his grandmother and the other protestors who were with him.
Never too late for a thank you
In 1983 in New York City, a firefighter pulled a four-year-old girl out of a burning building, saving her life. Recently, the girl, now a nurse and a grown woman, returned to New York to help with the Coronavirus pandemic. She had always wanted to thank the man who saved her life, and was hoping now would be her chance. She was afraid that he could have died saving lives on September 11th, but fate smiled on her.
One day while she was working in a Brooklyn hospital, she told her story to a captain of the New York Fire Department. The captain not only knew the firefighter, but had his number! They called her hero and she finally got to thank him. The two of them cried on the phone together and the firefighter said he had never forgotten her – they both had the same newspaper article about the fire framed on their walls. They haven’t met in person yet, but have every intention to take in a Yankees game together with their families in the hopefully-near future.
A soldier’s best friend
When Corporal Byung Kang went to Afghanistan as a Marine in 2011, he knew the dangers that possibly awaited him. But he went with an ace up his sleeve – he was the handler for a military dog named Blue. She was trained to detect improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Kang says she was so good at her work that she went on numerous patrols each day, locating danger before soldiers might get hurt.
He was so grateful that he made a promise to Blue that he’d adopt her once she was retired from the Marines. Kang and his wife, also a Marine veteran, managed to track Blue down and bring her to their home in Georgia in 2018. Now, Blue is part of a happy family! She is also a semifinalist in the military dogs category for the 2020 American Human Hero Dog Awards! Blue gives new meaning to sempre fi!
We hope you enjoyed this week’s batch of good news stories, and we encourage you to seek out more. If you are dismayed by all that is going on, know that you have the power to help enact change. You can help improve the world for everyone. It is worth the effort because people really are inherently good.
