Southwest Georgia has its Bright Side

Life, in many ways, is perspective.

Is the glass half full or half empty? Is a rainy day a blessing or a spoiler for outdoor plans? When life gives you lemons, can you make sweet lemonade out of it or just pucker in disgust?

It’s been said that behind dark clouds are silver linings, but they’re not easy to make out. It’s much easier to simply focus on those dark clouds than to make the effort to look beyond them.

On Sunday, The Albany Herald is debuting the Bright Side, a column that will appear on Page 2A and comprise positive ideas and comments about things going on in Albany, the metro Albany area and Southwest Georgia.

There are good things going on, always have been. But those things are far too easy to overlook when something bad happens. And when things happen that shouldn’t, they deserve the community’s attention, but so do the things that lift up the community.

When The Squawkbox was created more than a decade ago, it wasn’t designed to necessarily attract negative comments. That, however, is how it has evolved from reader comments. The fact is that people are more motivated to speak out about things and events they don’t like, rather than the things that they like and agree with.

Criticism of something that is being done wrong can have a positive effect if it is reasoned out and the situation is corrected. Criticism over the past few years, however, has gotten less factual and more personal, especially with the advent of social media, which allows harsh words to circle the globe in seconds.

And those harsh words accumulate with no counterweight to balance them.

The Bright Side will give a forum to those who see the good that is going on in the community. We hope these bits of silver lining will help others look past the dark clouds that preoccupy them and realize there is a great deal about Albany, the metro Albany area and Southwest Georgia to like, and to love.

The column begins Sunday. Here are ways you can submit your thoughts to be included in what is your — the reader’s — column:

CALL: (229) 888-9351;

EMAIL: [email protected];

FAX: (229) 888-9357;

MAIL: Bright Side, c/o News Dept., The Albany Herald, P.O. Box 48, Albany, Ga. 31702;

DROP OFF: Leave a written comment at our offices at 126 N. Washington St.

We hope you’ll participate in this column. Our region has a lot going for it, and that’s something worth talking about.

— The Albany Herald Editorial Board