Good Stuff is Still Happening

I recently received some thoughtful feedback from my offspring that my writing can be a bit lengthy at times. So, I’m making an attempt to keep this one shorter and on point. It is also not a secret that I am a bit of a news junky. I subscribe to multiple newspapers and dozens of Substack publications, as well as a handful of trade journals and magazines, and I thought I’d apply this obsession a bit differently today.

This is not my typical deep dive essay, but we all need a little break now and then from the doomscrolling and chaos of our current politics.

Here’s the truth. Good stuff is happening across the US despite our lack of leadership and aspiring dictator in DC. We have much to celebrate if we take a minute to look for it and dig a little deeper than mainstream cable news programs, breaking news popups on our phones, social media feeds, and the front pages of our favored newspaper, assuming you still get one.

Here are just a few of the latest stories that caught my attention recently.

Inspirational Speaker:

Kermit the Frog has been chosen as the commencement speaker for University of Maryland this year. “I am thrilled that our graduates and their families will experience the optimism and insight of the world-renowned Kermit the Frog at such a meaningful time in their lives,” said UMD President Darryll Pines.

Kermit sent back a message in response:

“Nothing could make these feet happier than to speak at the University of Maryland. I just know the class of 2025 is going to leap into the world and make it a better place, so if a few encouraging words from a frog can help, then I’ll be there!”

Kermit’s appearance honors the long history between UMD and Muppets creator Jim Henson, who graduated from the school in 1960.

Corporate America sometimes does good stuff:

$9 million in grants from Lowe’s is going to support 15 nonprofits dedicated to training the next generation of tradespeople to meet the growing demand for workers—fueled by rising wages and expanding job opportunities in areas that have a shortage of skilled labor. In construction alone, average hourly earnings have risen 4.4% over the past 12 months, according to Associated Builders and Contractors.

“We listen closely to contractors and know that many candidates don’t have the necessary skills to fill the wide range of open trades positions,” said Janice Dupré, a Lowe’s executive vice president and chair of the Lowe’s Foundation in a press release. “Through modern training methods, these nonprofits are unlocking the workforce’s potential while building an economy that rewards skills, not just titles or four-year degrees.”

The 14 nonprofits include ReBuild Detroit, the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh, Uncommon Construction (in New Orleans), Hope Renovations (in Raleigh-Durham NC, the Latino Academy of Workforce Development (in Madison, Wisconsin), Next Step of West Michigan (in Grand Rapids), Nontraditional Employment for Women (in New York), the North Alabama Homebuilding Academy (in Huntsville), Alaska Works (in Anchorage), Moore Community House (in Biloxi, Mississippi).

Another company stepping up recently is Verizon.

Verizon teamed up with ForgiveCo to eliminate $10 million in consumer debt for 6,500 Western North Carolinians who are still recovering in the wake of Hurricane Helene’s sweeping devastation.

Recipients were notified through surprise letters, emails, and text messages from Basketball Hall of Fame coach and Asheville native, Roy Williams.

The North Carolina families learned that Verizon—the world’s second-largest telecommunications company—cleared their medical, financial, and other debts with the help of ForgiveCo, whose “random acts of kindness” model purchases consumer debt, with no applications required. In fact, no further action was required by the beneficiaries.

Craig Antico, Founder and CEO, ForgiveCo confirmed the debt relief, saying, “Through this effort, Verizon will bring transformative change to the lives of North Carolinians in crisis, leaving a lasting mark on future generations.”

Green Energy is really happening:

The world surpasses 40% clean power as renewables see a record rise globally.

Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition, with both solar generation and capacity installations setting new records in 2024. Solar generation has maintained its high growth rate, doubling in the last three years, and adding more electricity than any other source over that period. At the same time, electricity demand saw a significant rise in 2024, outpacing the growth in clean electricity. Expanding technologies such as AI, data centers, electric vehicles and heat pumps are already contributing to the rise in global demand. However, the main reason why electricity demand growth was elevated in 2024 compared to 2023 was an increase in air conditioning use during heatwaves. This accounted for almost all of the small rise in fossil generation.

There are good rich people too:

Michael Jordan opens his fourth community health club that focuses on strengthening primary care for all patients—including individuals who are uninsured or underinsured. Novant Health and Jordan first launched this clinic concept in Charlotte in 2019 with a pair of clinics that were strategically placed to address barriers to care, including transportation.

Many of the Charlotte patients never had a primary care visit before they were welcomed into the Michael Jordan clinics, where patients found “a sense of hope’.

Building on the success of this model, a $10 million gift from Jordan to the Novant Health foundations made it possible to add two more clinics in Wilmington.

STEM education is still a worthy investment:

In the oldest and most prestigious young adult science competition in the nation, 17-year-old Ellen Xu used a kind of AI to design the first diagnosis test for a rare disease that struck her sister years ago. Kawasaki disease has no existing test method, and relies on a physician’s years of training, ability to do research, and a bit of luck.

Xu designed what is known as a convolutional neural network, which is a form of deep-learning algorithm that mimics how our eyes work and programmed it to analyze smartphone images for potential Kawasaki disease. She turned to crowdsourcing images of Kawasaki’s disease and its lookalike conditions from medical databases around the world, hoping to gather enough data to give the neural network a high success rate.

With a personal story driving her on, she managed an 85% rate of positive diagnoses with only a smartphone image, winning her $150,000 reward at the Science Talent Search.

Other fun distractions:

With all this good news you might be having some political withdrawal symptoms. If so, I recommend Michael Moore’s latest Substack articles to ease your way back in. On March 30^th Moore did a call-out to all artists to help Trump out with respect to replacing his portrait in the Colorado State Capital. The art is truly inspirational and so many aspiring artists have captured the true spirit of our felon in charge. Here are a few highlights of their work.

You can find many more submissions in Moore’s article I have included in my sources below.

And finally, may we all be more like the Elephants at the San Diego Safari Park this week, where we instinctively huddle in an alert circle to protect our most vulnerable when the earth below us begins to shake.