Good News Amidst Bad News

My company was nice enough to buy an extra ticket for a co-worker to
come with me to my previous organization's fundraiser last night. It
was her first exposure to the organization and the facility, and she
was impressed on both counts.

And who wouldn't be? The place was packed, it was elegantly and
festively decorated, and they had pulled out all the stops, in terms
of food and valet and red carpet.

The program was also top-notch. Entitled "Passing the Torch," it
honored the successful transition of the family business from three
black icons -- Earl Graves, Tom Joyner, and Walter Lomax -- to their
sons. Talk about some heavy hitters!

At one point, my friend and co-worker saw a TV camera and whispered to
me about how positive this event was, and how she hoped it would be
played up in the media instead of the usual stories that emanate from
our neighborhood, about crime and drugs and subpar educational
achievements. I heartily agreed.

So I was dismayed to find that the only coverage the event received
was in the Philadelphia Daily News' "Local News in Brief" section.
And they do mean "brief": the story took up less than two square
inches of page space. Even worse, it was the third item, beneath a
double homicide and the discovery of the remains of a suicide victim.

Here's the link to that page, in case you missed it:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/15636288.htm. Until we can get
the media to give publicity to the good things that are going on in
our community, make sure you read down to the bottom of the page when
you're reading the paper; who knows what positive thing gets
sandwiched between the usual violence and mayhem?