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Paperwork: You know … there is a way you can help make the world a better place · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Paperwork. You know there is a way you can help
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  Speaker 1: make the world a better place. Written by Lonnie Kine.
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  Speaker 1: This article is being read by an automated voice brought
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  Speaker 1: to you by Everlett. Thank you, Anne Frank for reminding
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  Speaker 1: me to fix the world. What would my day be
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  Speaker 1: without a little guilt, So thank you for that as well.
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  Speaker 1: All I needed was to read that simple sentence you
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  Speaker 1: penned in your famous diary. How wonderful it is that
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  Speaker 1: nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve
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  Speaker 1: the world. Those are compelling words when you consider the source.
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  Speaker 1: Annale's Marie Frank. Anne Frank kept a personal account of
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  Speaker 1: the seven hundred and sixty one days she and her
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  Speaker 1: family hid from the Nazis in World War II. They
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  Speaker 1: were jammed in a secret four hundred and fifty square
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  Speaker 1: foot space behind her father's office in Amsterdam, but they
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  Speaker 1: were discovered. The young Jewish girl died of typhus in
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  Speaker 1: February nineteen, four forty five, in the bergen Belsen concentration camp.
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  Speaker 1: Her journal, The Diary of a Young Girl, was published
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  Speaker 1: later in nineteen forty seven. Her last entry was three
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  Speaker 1: days before she was arrested at age fifteen. She wrote,
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  Speaker 1: I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are
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  Speaker 1: truly good at heart. So there you go. How's your
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  Speaker 1: day been so far? What have you been doing lately
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  Speaker 1: to make the world a better place? Sorry, I'm feeling
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  Speaker 1: frustrated and unsure how to begin fixing the world's problems.
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  Speaker 1: Ann Frank is one of many who believed in hope
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  Speaker 1: while living in fear. But I am more focused on
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  Speaker 1: the mission. Her one sentence spelled out, listen again, how
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  Speaker 1: wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment
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  Speaker 1: before starting to improve the world. The mission is pretty clear.
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  Speaker 1: She's telling me to face this question, what can I
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  Speaker 1: do to improve the world? Well, the world is a
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  Speaker 1: big place. I can spend hours wrestling with that question,
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  Speaker 1: hours and days and on and on with no easy answer.
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  Speaker 1: Much of my lifetime has been devoted to covering news
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  Speaker 1: of the day. Now it's news of the minute. I
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  Speaker 1: admit there are days in a row that I swipe
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  Speaker 1: away headlines designed to ignite anger or fear or disgust.
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  Speaker 1: I quickly move on, even mumbling to myself, don't care.
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  Speaker 1: It seems helpful to put up walls to silence the
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  Speaker 1: chaos and clamor, and it's easier than getting directly involved.
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  Speaker 1: But it is not easy. I can pull the covers
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  Speaker 1: over my head, but snuggled right next to me is
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  Speaker 1: that guilt. I can hear Anne Frank whispering there must
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  Speaker 1: be something you could do well. For starters, I need
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  Speaker 1: to focus or refocus. The first step is to shrink
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  Speaker 1: the entire world down to just my world where I live,
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  Speaker 1: who I can reach within my limits. I could work
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  Speaker 1: on reshaping or repairing or contributing little pieces to the
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  Speaker 1: world within my reach. I came across the perfect formula today. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it's what inspired me to write this. This advice came
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  Speaker 1: to me in an online feed I get from Joseph
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  Speaker 1: Pasassino of New York City, an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
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  Speaker 1: He writes novels, songs, and amazing poetry. Shared these thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: I do this little thing I call micro hope. If
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  Speaker 1: I hear reading is dying, I help one person, just
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  Speaker 1: one person, fall in love with what words can do.
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  Speaker 1: If I hear there's a loneliness epidemic, I call a
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  Speaker 1: friend and listen. If I hear AI will take over.
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  Speaker 1: I ask myself how I can be more human by grieving,
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  Speaker 1: by devoting, by repenting, by seeing what only those human
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  Speaker 1: truths can do. Does it save the whole world? No,
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  Speaker 1: but it's so much better than wasting the day talking
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  Speaker 1: about whether the whole world can be saved. I can
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  Speaker 1: embrace the simplicity of his micro hoope. Do what you
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  Speaker 1: can where you can. But don't assume you aren't helping
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  Speaker 1: with a global problem, because some of the problems in
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  Speaker 1: your community are also in most communities and even most countries.
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  Speaker 1: The few words Fasano shared have given me some direction
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  Speaker 1: and guidance. Now I can help by sharing them with
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  Speaker 1: you to think about and perhaps find your own way
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  Speaker 1: to define microhope and then share with others, along with
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  Speaker 1: those words from Anne Frank that kindle the mber of
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  Speaker 1: hope into fiery action. How wonderful it is that nobody
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  Speaker 1: need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
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  Speaker 1: Lonnie Kane, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa,
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  Speaker 1: also was a reporter for the Herald News in Joliet
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies. His paperwork email is Lonniejcine at
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  Speaker 1: gmail dot com or mail the News Tribune four twenty
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  Speaker 1: six Second Street LaSalle Isisle six one three zero one