In a December "Touched by an Angel, the managing editor of a daily newspaper was in the habit of publishing a steady diet of scandal, blood, and horror on the morning's front page. She had become so immune to the gore, she was "able to sort through morgue photos over lunch."

When the newly hired reporter (Monica) reveals herself to be an angel of God, the editor recalls a parable told to her by a favorite journalism professor in college:

We are boiling our hearts to death with a revved up media's emphasis on the negative aspects of life. We are cooking the tenderness right out of our humanity.

Consider, for instance, the barrage of images we endure on television and in movies about crime associated with young black men in baggy clothes. Is it any wonder our posture stiffens and we look away when we encounter someone who looks like that approaching us on the sidewalk?

If, in a better world, we were informed by daily accounts of the Hip Hop generation doing good in their communities, inspiring peers with messages of hope and non-violence, like tOObiz, a positive hip-hop artist, we might walk down that same sidewalk smiling broadly with the thought, "He looks like that nice young man I saw on tv last night."