As many of you already know, our friend Amanda Ripley wrote an opinion piece recently for The Washington Post. In it, Amanda confessed to selectively avoiding the news these days. This is, well, odd, considering she has been a journalist for 20 years. We interviewed her for our Respect Project because of her conviction – and her work toward proving – that no conflict is unsolvable. 

But that was the problem. “All individual action felt pointless once I was done reading the news,” she wrote in the Post. “Mostly, I was just marinating in despair.” A recital of brutality and woe is not a recipe for action. It’s really not “news for humans,” as she puts it. What humans need is a sense of hope, agency, and dignity. 

She was kind enough to mention the Monitor as a publication that was trying to do things differently, and that comes to mind as I read today’s issue. We have the perseverance of a member of Congress who, despite years of failures and frustrations, managed to build a meaningful coalition for bipartisan gun reforms. We have the courage and dignity of the man who, before he died last month, was the last surviving World War II Medal of Honor recipient. And we have the wonder of a remarkable milestone in space.

Readers will know that recent days have seen us hit the most difficult topics head-on, from Ukraine to abortion to Jan. 6. But these sparks of hope are news, too. In the comments below Amanda’s article, one reader imagined a new kind of motto for journalism: “Democracy Thrives Through Hope, Agency, and Dignity.” We wholeheartedly agree.