Editorial: Despite onslaught of bad news, always look for glimmers of a better world

The news today is undeniably depressing.

Being immersed in it all day every day, we understand that as well as anybody.

There is a seemingly never-ending cascade of bad news - one replacing another: the ravages of COVID-19, the daily horrors being heaped upon Ukraine, the specter of $5 gasoline, expressway shootings, government corruption, an upswing in drug abuse and suicide ... the list goes on. They're all important topics, but sometimes it can all be too much.

Good newspapers recognize that there is a threshold for bad news beyond which people will give up on news entirely. Ignorance is bliss, the saying goes.

Or is it?

Since Russia started its bloody onslaught of Ukraine two weeks ago, we've sought out signs of hope, of the spirit to overcome, in Ukraine, in Poland, which has received more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees, and right here in the suburbs.

We've tried to offer reasons to engage, reasons to care.

You'll see it in the photos we choose to run with these stories, the stories of suburban vigils, fundraisers and the collection of supplies that will head to Europe.

Despite clashes of major bad news on some days, we try to give you something else on the front page to provide some psychological balance. Sometimes it's a local story that's neither good nor bad in nature but important to know if you live in that town. Sometimes it's the story of a local hero.

It's easy to become cynical during times like these. Journalists fight that pull every day.

You might have missed amid the rubble of Ukraine a Page 1 story about how Illinois was responding to the mask mandate being dropped. Or the Page 1 story about Illinois registering two days in a row this week in which no one in the state died of COVID-19.

Or the fun story of a groovy house that sold recently in Rolling Meadows that would bring a smile to Austin Powers's face.

We're always looking for stories of hope, community-building, selflessness and love for the common man.

And when we can we give you a taste of it on the front page, perhaps you'll look for more of it inside.

We'll keep covering those stories that give us all hope as long as you keep looking for them.

Cynicism only further disengages us from the things that make us a community. It erodes our sense of hope.

It makes us quit looking for the bright spots that pop up here and there.

Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is isolation and detachment.

Do we really need more of that after two years of COVID?