HappyNews reader email

Hello from HappyNews. The editorial team here would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has taken the time to send us feedback on our site. We appreciate your emails very much and encourage an open dialogue about our stories, vision and mission as we rely on readers to help us shape what "Happy News" is. Below you will find a few clippings from emails we have recently received. Please note these letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of HappyNews.com. We appreciate your comments and will update this page from time to time.

Thank you for building a dialogue about the need for Happy News in our world.

Sincerely,

HappyNews Editor

Patricia Meyer

Letters Editor

Happy News

1/3/06

Regarding the story, "Archaeologists Pursued Jamestown Curiosity," (1/3), those of us who do genealogy know that if we get lucky enough, and find enough records, we find the medieval connection in American history. As Virginia celebrates its 400th anniversary, and as the film, "The New World" draws audiences, as archaeologists uncover medieval artifacts, we will see more finds such as the signet ring with a crest uncovered by archaeologist,

William Kelso. When the archaeologist said, "Most people don't think American history can be Shakespearean," he was not referring to America's genealogists.

In 2005 the Scottish Court of the Lord Lyon, which was formed in the 13th-century to research and verify the ancestry of the Kings of Scotland granted me a coat-of-arms, based on the genealogical records I uncovered.

My grandmother's ancestor, a Scotsman, among our many other African ancestors from Ghana (as confirmed by DNA) was a merchant, a noble. Noble merchants were called, burgesses. There burgesses, Shakespearean guild

merchants, were instrumental in the formation of the Early America Colonies.

Medieval guild-merchant-burgesses extended their control from Shakespeare's environs to the first American Colonies where the Virginia House of Burgesses, formed in Jamestown in 1607, first met in 1619, was America's first legislative group of officials, besides the Native American Indian federations. Medieval guild merchants, called burgesses, formed the foundation of business and legal stirrings in the Colonies which became the

United States. Genealogists of all backgrounds are uncovering these surprises.

Pearl Duncan

New York

Author of the upcoming book, "DNA Birthright Says Nobles, Slaves & Rebels,"

about using DNA and colonial genealogy to trace her ancestors.

www.pearlduncan.com

12/28/05

You have made our lives so much better! You practically stole our idea J. My 8 yo daughter has asked for years - why isn't there any *good* news? Well, thank you for providing fascinating, well-written stories on such a wide range of topics - every day. Who ever imagined there was so much happy news out there?

Have a happy happy 2006!

Lisa

12/23/05

I cannot remember who told me about your web site a few weeks ago. I only know that it has been like a breath of fresh air. There is good in the world, and we really don't have to look too far for it.

Today I ready some of the emails you had posted. Anonymous said, "When we ignore out sorrow, we lose our humanity." I don't feel as if you are ignoring the sorrowful news; you are simply reporting the other side.

A wise man once said, "May your life be filled with happiness, spiced with a little sorrow." Instead, we see all the bad things on the regular new and never any of the happy news. Please keep up the good work. Your website has made an incredible difference in my life.

Cathern, from Stafford, VA

12/15/05

Hello-

My name is Paula, and I am a fourth year, mechanical engineering student at the university of Wisconsin Platteville. I just wanted to say thank you. This year has not been an easy one, inside and outside of class. On one terrible day I emailed my mother and asked her to send me some happy news. I just need a joke, or a story that would make me smile, and make my day worth something. Much to my surprise she sent me your website. I read atleast one story on it everyday and it makes me smile. With finals approaching I have been reading more and more stories every day and it makes me feel better. I like to know that there are happy things happening in this cruel world. So thank you very much for this wonderful website. I hope that you get emails of thanks everyday, lots of them. You really brighten my day.

With much gratitude -

Paula

12/14/05

A prime example of negativity in media:

*CNN - "Super Man Catches Baby Tossed From Window" (What kind of parent allows a baby to be tossed out the window?)

*Happy News - "Mom Tosses Baby From Burning Building" (Mom couldn't get out but tried to save the baby.)

Just by the title I felt differently about the mother. I appreciate your positive outlook on the news. It isn't necessary to sensationalize everything in the news like so many media reporters do.

Melody

12/13/05

I am sure you get thousands of emails like this but I just wanted to say "Thank you." I got up at 6 a.m. this morning and read the headlines and announcements on MSN. I was so depressed at what I saw about the economy and lost hope for 30-somethings like me, I felt like crying and I went back to bed. I just got up again and saw CNN reporting about your site. I have made it my new news site.

It tells this 30-something I may be down but not out. There is hope out there.

Jennifer

12/12/05

If the Indianapolis Colts record season isn't Happy News, your sight isn't worth viewing!

Bob - Colts Fan

12/11/05

I just read about this site on Netscape. In the report, a person is quoted as saying that the kind of news that gets into print on this site won't help people elect the right person to deal with the community's or nation's problems. I totally disagree. I'll vote for people who help make the pursuit of real happiness their priority.

I'll vote for people who can not only battle and alleviate

wrongdoing, but who also show they can promote the common welfare in positive ways.

No one's saying we need to ignore the mainstream media; just balance it with a good dose of reality--the genuinely healthy, honest, life-promoting activities of real human beings everywhere. Losing sight of the actual goodness happening simultaneously with everything else around us has cost our nation its true identity, in my opinion.

Genuine democracy demands that we act from within a desire for and understanding of common good. Increasingly our nation has passed laws and been subjected to advertising (including political advertising) that capitalizes on the media induced obsessions with fear, greed, anxiety, isolation, and the law used to gain rather than

stem the low-level impulse for vengeance.

Thank you for this website. I know people will denigrate it for being called "happy" even while they justify greed as being their right to the pursuit of "happiness." You are giving real water, not a mirage, in a desert of growing meanness and despair. Thank you. I

am emailing and phoning everyone I know about this site.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah - Bethlehem, PA

I have been in a rather deep depression for a few years and reading the news doesn't give me any sense of hope. I don't know who distorts reality more, the typical news or your service, but it was certainly a refreshing change to read through your site. You have a difficult task ahead I think in terms of adhering to a concept of "happy news" without wandering off into frivolity. But I will be returning on a regular basis and hope you continue and succeed in your efforts to undermine the mainstream media's negative focus. There is far too much bad news in the world and I frankly have reached my limit in the ability to absorb and digest it. Thank you for your contribution to the net and good luck.

Dario

Let me first say that I love your site, and I read it whenever I get the chance. It's refreshing to see good news for a change!

Imagine my disappointment to see a review of King Kong on your site. It's a spectacular effects movie, I'm sure, but it hardly qualifies as happy news! It's about the last creature of his kind being kidnapped from his home, exploited for profit, and then murdered! How is that happy?

King Kong has always been a story that makes me upset. I don't think its appropriate material for a site that's supposed to be uplifting.

Heather

Thank you! The sight is like opening the first window of spring time and getting that first blast of fresh air! I hope your sight will continue and grow. What a change from the doom and gloom of mass media, even when something positive happens, they cannot compromise their "journalistic" standards to report it-or if they do, they try to put a negative spin on it.

Anyone who has been in this world ten minutes knows what is going on around them and not all of it is bad! Just knowing this sight exist' gives me a boost. I am a dedicated Fox News watcher since they are as close to fair as is available at this time, but even when they correct the balance on a given story (should that word be used?, suggests fiction not fact) they sometimes beat that point to death giving you the same sour taste.

Suggest you try to carry your approach over to cable/satellite and watch what happens to the OOOOH! group. People have beaten down by bad news for so long, just the thought of something good happening is almost to good to imagine and then to put real faces and names to the story(?) just makes it that much better.

Keep up the really good, much appreciated, over due news. One more thing to keep in mind, if you pay attention to how the mass media portray themselves, they think that "they" are the reason for the news not the news itself. Keep your egos in check and you won't fail. I will personally relay this web site to everyone I know and to as many church groups, Military units, and school boards as possible.

Thank You,

Mark

I watch the news. I read news stories on the internet. No matter where you turn there's murder, death, disease, hunger, suffering. While it's my personal belief that you can't turn away from what's wrong in the world, it's the greatest breath of fresh air that someone out there is trying to shed light on the world where everyone else makes it out to be hell itself.

I read stories online about how children are dying from incurable cancers and AIDS. It's a downer. Then i go to happy news and it shows me the other side. I don't do it out of selfishness to make my spirits higher. I do it because I like to know that there's actually good going on in the world.

I just read your article on the 80yr old man who is a champion tennis player to this day. It was inspiring. I'm 19, overweight, a smoker, and his story inspired me to turn around. Without reading that story I probably wouldn't of had the inspiration.

Jared

When we ignore our sorrow, we lose our humanity. Hope that Wellbutrin is working well for ya. - Anonymous

Hello HappyNews.com!

I first read of your site in Monday's edition of the News & Observer, my town's paper. I no longer watch the news on T.V. because it is too negative -- both local and world news showcase only what they feel "sells": murder, war, crime, and poor weather-guessing. I'm not thrilled with our paper due to its political slant at times (news is best when presented as fact, not as sly nod to a preferred party -- this belongs on the editorial page only). However, I love reading the paper for variety and its quirky touches on local life. A small article hidden in our paper's depths revealed your site and confirmed that yes, happy news does exist on our lovely planet. Hallelujah! I read your site daily now, and usually before the newspaper. It saddens me that T.V. news and our newspapers do not find these stories important enough to include in their reports. What we need most is balance. As one of your reader's stated: "When we ignore our sorrow, we lose our humanity." While this may be true in a sense, your site does not ignore sorrow. You have fully acknowledged that our world has too much sorrow and needs positive news to provide balance.

Happy Reporting and best of luck!

Andrea

Raleigh, NC