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EDITORIAL: There's hope for the future after all

Cynicism and despair about the future is understandable for journalists. Like the police, we often deal with people at their worst.

Cynicism and despair about the future is understandable for journalists.Like the police, we often deal with people at their worst. We find ample evidence of greed, cruelty and stupidity in news reports from elsewhere.At least twice a year, though, our faith in humanity and its future is reinvigorated. Besides Christmas, there are the Governor-General Medals for Academic Excellence.With apologies to other worthy G-G Award recipients, the stories in Friday’s Record were particularly inspiring and poignant.Emma Dubé, Highland Secondary School's G-G medal winner, will switch from North Island College to UVic next year, leaning toward archeology."Archeology and anthropology is the study of people throughout time and space," she said in an interview. "It's a combination of art, which I love, and history and ideas and understanding people and where they came from. It's almost like soul searching, almost understanding myself and others."This is a deep and compassionate thinker, particularly considering she’s just 17.Besides starring academically, she tutored classmates in English 12 and Biology 12 as well as being "the backbone" of Christmas Hamper donations.Dubé did all this and more in spite of being deaf in her right ear since birth.Peter Wizinsky also knows what it’s like to overcome an obstacle to achieve academic excellence.The North Island Distance Education School’s G-G medal recipient is high-functioning autistic, who describes his elementary school years as “hellish,” being teased and marginalized by his peers.Wizinsky, who hopes to earn a bachelor of science degree and follow his grandfather’s footsteps as a research scientist in chemistry, seems to have turned out even better than his “peers.”He, Dubé and other G-G award earners are in good company, which includes Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas and Robert Bourassa.It seems there’s hope for the future after all.editor@comoxvalleyrecord.com