(Dan Alexander, Townsquare Media NJ)

My guess is many of you, especially those a bit younger, rarely if ever sit down and watch the local TV news at 6 p.m.

If I’m home my wife and I like ABC New York’s Eyewitness News and then at 6:30 will often watch the 30-minute ABC National News. In all honesty by the time 7 o’clock arrives I have shaken my head several times and uttered something like “what is going on?” or “is there any hope for the world?”

To answer that second question, I’m not sure.

I recognize that there were likely many people decades ago who felt the same way about what was taking place in their day and age.  The depression, two world wars, the cold war, the oil crisis, assassinations of JFK, RFK & MLK. They were all troubled times in our nation and in the world.

During those moments many likely questioned the future or if there would even be one.  Bottom line is that just about every generation at some point feels like their way of life is being threatened by what’s happening around them.

However what we are witnessing today should be most concerning because it seems like in the U.S. so many have devalued human life.  We didn’t need the latest example of mass shootings to find out there’s a problem because every day gun violence claims lives. Nearly 40,000 people died in 2017 from firearm injuries and nearly 6-in-10 Americans feel that random acts of violence pose the biggest safety threat to them.

It’s not just shootings. It’s everything and if you watch an hour of news at night you’ll know exactly what I mean.  Politics, racism, corruption, global terrorism, drugs, education, health care, the environment, immigration, poverty, man’s inhumanity to man.

You might watch stories on all of these in one sitting and it leaves you depressed and feeling somewhat helpless.

Of course if you do watch ABC World News Tonight then you know the last three minutes or so are devoted to a segment called “America Strong.”  It’s an uplifting feature that raises you almost from the ashes and leaves me with a smile or tears of joy and most importantly with hope that all is not lost.

That’s what we need more than anything. Hope that things will get better.