Sure could use a little good news . . .

There's a boatload of bad stuff going on these days. Lots of hate and anger and poverty and misery and greed and envy and spite and blame and crime and punishment and [insert your favorite downer of a situation here] . . .

Then out of nowhere a story like this one appears and wah-LAH!--it rekindles your faith in a certain highly developed species:

It seems that a high school athlete named Josh Ripley was running a two-mile cross-country race when he stopped after about a half-mile. The reason he stopped was to help a competitor from another school who was injured. The second boy's ankle had been spiked by the shoe of a third runner. The injury was an accident and not on purpose, so that's some pretty good news right there, in this day and age. But the best news was what happened next.

When Josh saw the boy's bleeding ankle, he didn't say, "Well, it sucks to be you" and leave him there. Instead he picked the boy up and carried him that half-mile back to the coaches, so he could get medical help (which included a trip to the hospital and quite a few stitches). Then Josh turned around and ran the complete race, which he didn't win.

Or did he?

To find out the rest of the story of "The Compassionate Mr. Ripley," follow this link.