How about this?

You're alive.
You are in a nation that allows you to type your opinion.
There is food available to you. You may have to go to a church, food pantry, or apply for food stamps, but there is food. Heck, our CATS have more food choices than most other nations.
You can read.
You can type.
You have a high-tech machine that enables this.

There. There's some good news. Merry Whaterver and happy new year!!

xfngrs said, "Right now, I could use more GOOD news."
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I think we could ALL use ANY good news. JMO

Sometimes posters are totally banned.

Right now, I could use more GOOD news.

I am so excited! My first forced post removal! Ah, the first of many, for sure. {{tear}}

Eating hamsters? I am offended. I am going to report you. Just wait. Waiting for your post to be removed. Waiting.

<---is wondering if her comment about eating hamsters in college will soon be removed as well now by the People for Ethical Treatment of Earth's Rodents (PETER).

It's so cute that people can't even skip over posts, but have to click the little "tattle tale" button.
Can't stand to see folks having a good time.
Wow.
Some folks just look for reasons to be offended. Funny thing is, Mainstreet wasn't graphic, so whoever had his post removed, obviously knew QUITE WELL what Mainstreet was talking about.
Guilt, perhaps????

Well beeferer, that's just it-my hometown paper still prints some news in small town fashion, is not the WorldWide Gazette, so I'll keep reading. Same as my adopted paper-the Milton Courier, where a youth group can share a level of importance (to local readers) with a terror group-as it should be. But thanks for the link-looks like just the place to "get away" for a mental vacation when I don't have time for a real one..and I can do it with the click of the mouse.
localboy-acts of kindness SHOULD BE expectations-but it's not always true in a world where acts of terror (dispair, hunger, misery, accidents, financial decline) ARE expectations, so, as mentor397 suggests, we should be happy to read about young people such as Jordan who will probably grow up to help combat those ills. Can't we have a little nuggets of "sweet!" once in awhile? (Sadly-there was an act of cruelty that made this story possible.)
Frankly-since I read the story online-I didn't pay much attention to its placement, because I go to sections in the order of particular importance to me.

RUSerious- Are you serious?!?!? You don't have to move when the hometown newspaper gets too "big city". You can simply cancel your subscription and subscribe to a newspaper from a different town. Might I recommend The Hungry Horse News- a small town newspaper in Hungry Horse, Montana. They have an award winning photographer and the pictures are breath-taking! The scenery out there is like a piece of paradise. There are usually pictures from Glacier National Park- the most beautiful park I have ever been to. Check it out. Their address is: The Hungry Horse News
Box 189 Columbia Falls, MT 59912. You can also check it out here: http://www.hungryhorsenews.com

Acts of kindness are expectations. It is only when we lower our expectations, that they get the notoriety as in this article. I in no way want to reduce the kids efforts, but I can't understand the publicity a basic act of kindness receives when there are more pressing situations that require action. Instead of front page coverage of a Democratic Governor who is caught up in a extortion scandal, we are treated with a story of a stray dog that people have been chasing for 6 months. A dirty politician (which should require public outrage and action) gets a small 2 X 3 inch article buried in the back section. Go figure. The Gazette can't please everbody, it is just my opinion.

When my hometown newspaper gets too "big city" and out of touch with the individual to print stories like this, I would no longer pick it up with the same anticipation and expectation-and I'd think very seriously about moving to a smaller, more friendly town than one whose residents smirked or turned their noses up at stories such as this (or worse-where "feel good" stories no longer existed). Oh wait-I did that a decade ago.
That story did not cost you one cent more, nor did it prevent you from reading about the recent violence in Athens or political scandal, if that is your pleasure. Maybe Jordan didn't run into any suffering babies on that street corner.

How did I know that localboy would be the one finding fault with this story of a young boy that saw a need and helped out. Did he save starving kids in a third world country? Did he defuse mines in Iraq or save schoolchildren in Afghanistan? No.

He's 17. Give him time and support and he might just get to work on those other problems. Belittle him and what he did and he might just become bitter and angry and post mean comments on the website of his local paper.

I am not sure how we can be lumping rodents, puppies, and humans in to one sentence and not note the differences.

I am sure the hamster nation would be proud of Jordan. Humans, probably confused. Bleeding hearts often can't separate rodents, puppies, or humans. Best of luck to you Jordan. I hope you can save the world. Frank, keep up the good job of finding those hamster interest stories out there. Your Pulitzer awaits.

Dead puppies aren't much fun.

My mom acquired a dog the same way, some jerk in Arkansas took a drive in the country and dropped a paper bag full of puppies on the road near her home. Seems his high-priced Bluetick hound had a little unauthorized cross-breed fun and he took the cheap and cowardly way of disposing of the results.
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She found one still barely alive and managed to save it and decided to keep it.

bless the beasts and the children....

elementalvirago I meant to tell you, I took me a college course too. I don't find a connection between hampers and school curriculum myself but you know...if you feel the need to drop your resume, this is good a place as any I 'spose.

Nice job kid. Even better that an organization ran for profit picked up the transfer.

Now for the rest of the story. What in the world are you doing picking up hamsters at 11pm, mom?

I agree whole-heartedly with Elfie. Animals of all types are used as a means of perpetuating the greed and capitalism of this country. Factory farming is an inhumane machine - but the money generated seems to make everyone turn their heads. God bless the child for taking care of these animals, but let's not forget the bigger picture.

Jordan,

What you did was kind. No act of kindness, no matter how small, is a waste.

What you did makes you a bigger, sweeter, and better person than so many of the immature twirps here.

A boy that rescues a few abandoned rodents is more likely to be a loving father that passes on a positive change in the world.

(This comment was removed, thought over, replaced, and then ultimately re-removed by the site staff.)

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

I don't know about anyone else, but my interpretation of the other comments were that there were no inferences that this was not a 'human interest' story. The comments I read and interpreted were that opinions were stated.

I do commend this child and his mother for making a better home for the hamsters... there is no shame in that!

Personally, I responded to a comment that someone had stated there are starving children in third-world countries. My response? Not only are there hamsters 'forgotten about' and dumped in alleys, we have children that are 'forgotten about' and dumps... I don't even want to imagine where children get dumped.

Yes, they are, “rodents”.
Yes, there are starving children.
Yes there are people in need.
Yes, most of us are upset about how things are going, but I think that in order to get back on track, we all have to reach deep down inside and find that compassion that some of us seem to have lost. This was a story about compassion, honest good thoughts and it could be a good beginning. JMO

They are rodents. Who cares.

You the man, Jordan!

I'm sooo happy that they helped these 'Three Wise Men' I am very happy that this article was written. It does show all the grumpy people of Janesville that not all teens are horrbile people. I think it's cute he named them the 'Three Wise Men.'

And I'm sure he would have been 'blacklisted' for taking them to the Humane Society. God forbid someone help an animal!

Get a clue, there's starving children in Janesville too!

Jordan, you and your mom did a good thing and are a great example to all. The world needs more people like you.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Very nice story and very nice kid! If more people showed more kindness in acts like this, the world would be a lot better place. People who would mistreat a helpless animal like this has no soul.

Trash last month, hampsters today, world hunger tomorrow!

Sorry, I mean...
RIGHT ON ELEMENTALVIRGIN!!

RIGHT ON ELFIE!!

Elfie - no one thinks about that because pigs are tasty and hamsters, well..not so much. Trust me, I know. I went to college.

OK seriously though...yes, that's terrible to think about, and then we have dogs being beaten and skinned alive in China, and bears in cages in other countries, and the starving children in whatever third world country we're focusing on now. But a little boy saved some hamsters right here in our little town, and that's good. That's where it starts, right?

How nice but has anyone seen how pigs are transported to slaughter in the freezing cold? They are piled into trucks and urinate and defacate on each other over miles and miles resulting in their skin freezing to one another and the steel bars on the truck. It's nice that you're all worried about these little guys but the real world is out there and no one is facing it.

Some people are so heartless...last year I got my kitten because some jerk left 2 of them in a box outside of an insurance agency. I don't understand how people can do this...but I have to agree this story is pretty funny. I'm glad the hamsters are okay though.

Mainstreet LOL. I don't even want to know what it's been eating to stay alive...

I dropped a gerbal once, but it was an accident.

Thank goodness for Jordan and his mom. There are some people who would have realized what they were and left them. The person who dumped these animals needs to go to jail.. Or be stripped down to nothing but body hair and left outside for hours.

Poor little babies....

And in an earlier article with this teenager spotlighted, it said he was home schooled, right? That is probably why he was out walking with his mom at 11pm. I am very impressed that his parents are raising such a sweet, mature person. Not many people would have done what he did.


Hampsters have feelings too ya know :P~

Mainstreet, are your initials R.G?

LOL

My thoughts and prayers go out to the hamsters- this is the funniest thing I think I have read in a long time!!!

Glad Hammy and his crew found a new home...

All of this is so funny I started crying!

Way to go Jordan!! And kudos to the Gazette for writing this. If media paid more attention to the GOOD things that kids do, maybe they'd do good more often!

Good thing he didn't take them to the Humane Society; he might have been blacklisted for life. (LOL!?) Good job with the rescue, Jordan. I also don't understand how people can just dump live animals.

JCK, don't wish for that! I have only so many thoughts and prayers to go around!

I wish they'd find the previous owner, put them in a cardboard box and let them spend the night on the street in -2 degree weather. Hopefully the next person to buy them has an ounce of compassion.

What a nice kid. At least he was with his Mother at 11pm and not his friends. I knew someone would say something about the late hour.

Psychiatrists and psychologists claim that people who are cruel to animals are or will be murderers.

Ummmmmm,what? Ok, abandoned hamsters in a box? I guess that's weird, but what the hell is a 17 year old kid doing walking the streets with mommy at 11:00 P.M. on a school night? This could be the worst gazette story of the year.

Is this a very slow news day or are we in for monthly updates on the life of this enigmatic individual?

My thoughts and prayers go out to the hamsters.

How can people be so cruel to abandon helpless animals in the cold? Hopefully, they will find a good home soon.