good news

Weekly Optimism 7

This week’s news is a first of its kind…for this particular prison. Louisiana’s Angola Prison had their first ever “Dad and Daughter Dance”. From SunnySkyz:

When fathers turned around to see their daughters enter the room, many broke down in tears—including Leslie, an incarcerated father who hadn’t danced with his daughter until that very moment.

“When I turned around and saw my baby in that dress and she busted out crying… I sobbed, man, and I ain’t no crier,” he shared with Newsweek. “She said, ‘Dad, I finally get a chance to dance with you for the first time.’”

I love stories like this. The dads were screened and had to be in good standing in order to participate for obvious reasons. But, it’s important to remember that there are plenty of good people that did bad things behind bars. These are still uncles, husbands, sons, and of course, fathers. It’s our job to make sure they don’t lose the humanity as they serve for their crimes.

Fearless Friday: Taking on a burning bus

When an elderly woman was trapped on a burning bus a bunch of people sprang into action. They fought the blaze with water and fire extinguishers. Ultimately, a man, one of the local shop owners, went into the bus and pulled the elderly woman out.

We don’t know the cause of the fire at this time.

It’s a Fearless Friday simply because the man went into the flames to save the woman. There’s video of the entire thing, including him going into the bus. He was later interviewed and essentially brushed it off saying that anybody in his situation would do the same thing. If he were on the bus, people would do the same thing to save him. “It’s natural”.

Powerful words. That’s how society should be. In the face of chaos, we should be trying to help people because it’s natural. What a world to live in.

Good News Friday: Police Officer saves life first day on job

You don’t need experience for life to come at you, and come fast. Richard Mayer found that out. On his first day on the job, he ended up jumping into action to save the life of a toddler who was choking on an apple.

The mother of the toddler rushed to him to inform him that her daughter was choking. There was little hesitation on Mayer’s part. Apparently, and I feel bad for saying this, but the mother tried to get the apple out of her daughter’s throat but ended up pushing it in further. Just wild.

Ah, but the toddler survived (you knew that; otherwise I wouldn’t be talking about it, here). Look, I love apples myself. I think apple slices for a toddler is a risk in itself. But hey, at least she’s not allergic to them like I am. The story didn’t say a “slice”, however. Just a “piece”. How big? Did the daughter chew properly? I’m just trying to see how we can avoid this again.

Apples are the best fruit of all time. Just wanna leave that there. Goodnight.

The Optimistic Report: Helping Single Mothers

The Optimistic Report is a featured post sharing positive, good, and optimistic news. Also, inspirational quotes and some humor too. Ready? Go!

So, first thing to talk about is Tommy Norman. Tommy is a police officer who does what he calls “C.O.P.” This stands for Community Oriented Policing. So, what he does is hang out with the members of the community, specifically kids.

He talks about how, by spending time with the citizens, he’s building a relationship and building trust. Check out his Instagram post (within the main article) on his reasoning. Really awesome stuff.

Next, let’s talk about a business that employs single mothers. So, Xinca is a company that uses tire scraps to make shoes. They hire single mothers because their goal is to give back their dignity and give them a chance to take care of their families. Honestly, why wouldn’t you want to support a business that’s trying to stop pollution and help people less fortunate?

So, inequality is still a topic. While some say it’s inevitable that we will always have inequality, I strongly agree with the idea that inequality is a choice and a policy instead of something that will simply just happen. Let me know what you think.

The Optimistic Report: Firefighters Save Christmas

It’s a little too early for Christmas unless you work in retail. But, for a man who was trying to get his house ready for the holiday season by putting his lights on the house, it could’ve been better.

Glenn fell off of the ladder he was using to put up Christmas lights. He ended up breaking his leg. So, as emergency services cleared out, some of the firefighters stayed behind and finished decorating the house.

You hear this story every year. Some secret santa goes to layaway and pays for orders. This time, we have a man right from my New Jersey pay for 60 orders which totaled to about $10,000. This was at a Toys R Us store in Cherry Hill (I am not far from there).

He didn’t stop there. He also spent another $2,000 for Toys for Tots.

Finally, we have a man who decided to take matters into his own hands. Or, wheels. Bruce decided he needed to show the local police that a nearby intersection was very dangerous so he did the only thing he knew: Crash his car.

Wait, what?

Yeah, he just…he crashed into somebody on purpose, then told the other driver off!

Look, I’m all about making a point and giving live demonstrations to back that point up, but they might have gone too far, Bruce. Let’s see where Bruce was coming from. Accidents had been happening at that intersection, and it seems it was specifically because people were running stop signs. Bruce also believes nothing will change until someone dies.

Actually some strong points. He just…ah…took it too far, bro. Too far. Nobody was injured. So, that’s cool.

The Optimistic Report: Anti-Bullying Technique

This week’s report contains a good brother, anti-bullying, and an artist taking London by storm.

A male model decided he wanted to make his sister’s birthday special. So, he gave her her own photo shoot. Chris has an older sister who also has down syndrome. She had always wanted to do what her little brother did. So, that’s what he gave her.

It’s a really touching story, honestly. I have a lot of respect for his reasoning behind it. I always wanted to be that way to my sisters. I sure failed, but boy I’m happy he could do his job and do it well.

dreams

Next, we have an option to fight bullying. However, our guy says it’s not bullying. Instead, it’s “dominance behavior”. Anyway, he demonstrates in the video how to take the joy and fun away from the bully while building yourself in the process.

Um, I have to admit…the video didn’t seem as authentic as I had hoped. But, I do believe the idea.

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Lastly, we have an artist who is painting London in color. She’s tired of the old gloomy gray skies. There are a lot of photos of her work in the article. I suggest you take a look.