Chandra Levy disappeared. Rep. Gary Condit has not been totally cooperative with authorities in the four interviews he had with police. This has cast a gray cloud about Condit’s innocence in Levy’s disappearance. Andrea Yates brutally drowned her 5 children one by one in the bathtub. Two weeks ago, 4 hijacked planes were purposefully crashed and could cause up to 7,000 deaths when the rubble is cleared.

Brutality, death, destruction, devastation and a questionable disappearance – the past few months have been one negative after another.

It seems like every time the papers are read disheartening news about the human race jumps from the pages. Is it human nature to single out only the negative stories?

Or better yet, is it the media’s job to do this, as only these stories constitute “newsworthiness?”

I would hope that this is not the case. I think that these negative stories get the most coverage because they shock us and in most cases have the greatest impact on the greatest amount of people than say, Little Joey passing his spelling test. Who wants to hear about Little Joey? If the paper were full of Little Joey’s, then people would be burning the newspapers in the streets and wondering why we wasted their time and money.

Why can’t these stories cover the human triumphs that surround us? Maybe we should focus on the question “are there any human triumphs to cover?” With the destruction of the World Trade Centers, stories of heroes and human triumphs did get covered. These heroes gave their lives to help people.

But now we are back to saddening stories. In covering the hero’s triumph, we also cover his or her death. A large number of heroes sacrificed their lives to save people, the ultimate sacrifice that heroes make. This is disheartening. It makes me happy to hear such stories of sacrifice.

But I am also sad, because I wonder why these heroes could not live. We look for stories to cover, heroes no less, and we are still saddened by their death. Aren’t heroes indestructible? Like Roman gladiators or astronauts?

There are heroes that accomplish such feats they almost seem invincible – sports athletes, the modern day gladiators, performing feats and accomplishing things we can only dream of. There are some examples of feats that are occurring right now.

Even though the single-season home run record [70] in baseball has only stood for less than two seasons, Barry Bonds is on pace to break that record. This number seems insurmountable, and yet the record is about to fall. Who cares if these home runs are virtually being shot out of a cannon?

They make us feel astounded to be able to witness such a feat. We sit in awe and watch the coverage and watch the games showing us heroes doing what they do best, overcome the odds.

Michael Jordan announced he’s returning to basketball. He will sell his ownership shares in the Washington Wizards and return as a basketball player. Not many want to see him return. Or they talk about how “bad” he will be. Who cares? We have all been guilty for placing our limits on Michael Jordan’s ability, and every time, every single time he has risen to the challenge. Challenges, that is what this is all about.

To Jordan, this is just another challenge, something to battle against and overcome. Sure, maybe he won’t get to the finals or even the playoffs.

But Jordan at 70 or 80 percent is better than half the league and just as good as most. He will overcome too, because that’s what heroes do. They overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and perform better than expectations.

Barry Bonds will break the home run record. Michael Jordan will come back and dazzle us, probably even dumping 55 points on the Knicks again.

These athletes will overcome these challenges because that is what they do. They are heroes in every sense of the word and their feats happen when no one thinks they could possibly be achieved.

Are firefighters and policemen heroes? You’re damn right they are.

While these stories fill us with sadness and happiness at the same time, they still are surrounded by death.

Maybe we can just focus on uplifting stories for a while. Heroes that take the court or field everyday, looking for that challenge to overcome. Just maybe, we can open the paper and say “wow” in shock and not because of death.

Jason Bruen is a senior in Engineering Operations from Lake Bluff, Ill.