Unfortunately, in today’s society, more attention is paid to the bad that our young people do than the good.

Many of you might be thinking that’s because all the media does is run the bad and not the good.

Sometimes, we agree with you. But the truth of the matter is that this is not just the messenger’s fault.

If we post something online or run a story in the paper that reports something about the bad our children do, a lot more people will read every word about those misdeeds than if we run a story about a child who has done good.

In that case, more than likely, the only readers would be the child’s family.

We would like to begin to change that trend. If you have some good news to share about any of the young people in Newton County, send a picture and a few words extolling the child’s accomplishments.

We will run them for free.

In the meantime, we would like to praise the accomplishments of the Oxford Youth Singers, who put on as fine a presentation of “Les Miserables” as we have seen. This wholesome group effort makes all of us proud.

Also, Samuel Potts of Eastside and William Dobra of Alcovy High were chosen Newton County representatives in the prestigious Governors Honors Program. Ralph Brown was nominated to represent his school and classmates at the Junior National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. Ralph is a seventh grader at Newton County Theme School at Ficquett.

These are just a few of our future young leaders here in Newton County.

There are still going to be reports of bad behavior. You can help to counter that by sending us news about the good things children do. We will be proud to print those stories.