The Good News Blog

A brother on one of those social networking sites has often asked, "Where is the good news blog?" Lately, I have found myself wondering the same thing. With all of the natural disasters, famine, riots, stocks plummeting, and various other woes, life can seem overwhelming, even oppressive. We need to be able to see the good, the beauty, the love in the world to keep us inspired and motivated. So today's post is devoted to The Good News.

Marley Family Launches Bob Marley 'I'm Gonna Be Your Friend' Campaign*

Last week, the children and wife of Bob Marley launched a campaign with Save the Children to help raise funds for food, water, and medicine for children and families suffering from the famine in East Africa. The campaign has garnered the support from over 150 well know celebrities and combined resources with Universal Music Group, Yahoo!, Facebook, MSN, YouTube, Twitter, and others to reach an audience of over a billion people. The Marley family has put together a video of images from East Africa with Bob Marley's "High Tide or Low Tide" playing over it. The lyrics say, "I'm gonna be your friend" which is the title and message of the campaign. You can download the video and song and donate money to help the people of East Africa. The video/song can be downloaded on iTunes for $1.29, on www.imgonnabeyourfriend.org, or Bob Marley's facebook page. Big ups to the Marley family, true conscious compassionate warriors.

'Broom Army'**

On Monday, following the riots in London, a large group of citizens took to the streets with brooms to clean up the mess made in their community. This show of pride and solidarity was captured in a photo by Andrew Bayles, a citizen from an area not affected by the riots who went to help with the clean up.

This is a great display of community and hopefully a boost of optimism for them.

Youth

• 9 year old girl hoped to raise $300 to bring clean water to an African village, but dies after a fatal car crash, just short of her goal. A few days later, 16,000 people donated a total of $500,000 to "Charity Water" in her honor.***
• 10 year old boy writes and publishes a children's book for charity. All proceeds from "Cameron's A-Z" go to "Habitat for Humanity." He was moved to help those affected by the tornadoes in Joplin, MO****
• 11 year old Ghanaian school boy has raised $500 for victims of the famine in Somalia. He told the BBC he wanted to raise $13m during his school holidays from private donations*****
• 12 year old girl rescues 12 year old boy from drowning in the pacific ocean. ."No matter who it is and if they need help, I will risk my life, I will do it," she said******

These are some amazing young people, and I know there are more of them out there. Don't count the youth out. They're doing big things.

Other Good News

• 98 year old woman in San Francisco becomes the first woman to be promoted to judo's highest level: 10th degree black belt. Only three people in the world, all men living in Japan, have ever reached that mark. ******* You're never too old, and it's never too late
• The United Arab Emirates gifted $500,000 to Joplin, Missouri schools to spend on laptops to help the tornado ravaged schools to prepare to open next week********
• The best news of all YOU WOKE UP THIS MORNING

There's some really good things going on in the world, and we have to take the time to notice them and be thankful for them. The best news on any day, is that we woke up to see another day. No matter what is going on in our lives, there is always something good. Please feel free to share any good news you have. Love and Light.

*http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/133075-entertainment-industry-launches-bob-marley-campaign.html

**http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-14490167

***http://www.news24.com/World/News/Girl-gets-charity-wish-after-death-20110728

****http://www.happynews.com/news/892011/10-year-old-boy-writes-children-book-charity.htm

*****http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14474860

******http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015870605_miracle11m.html

*******http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F08%2F05%2FDD181KHUV0.DTL

********http://www.happynews.com/news/8102011/uae-donates-500-000-help-joplin-schools.htm