On The Positive Side

A few positive stories worthy of note:

• With yesterday's surprising news of Kadima joining the Israeli government, the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Netanyahu is now the largest unity government in Israeli history. That's really amazing. Jameel has a fantastic summary of who stands to gain and lose from this, and this was a great point:

  "Obama is a partisan president, while Bibi is the leader of the largest national unity coalition in the history of Israel. Netanyahu has the support of most of the country behind him for whatever he may need to do."

  Is it not often the case that those who lead with clarity and purpose and most of all, responsibility, tend to gain support, while those who constantly heap blame on others tend to divide? 
• A brilliant campaign on texting and driving: Force people to pass a road test while they text. (HT: Josh)
• A frum 11-year old girl in Baltimore is a finalist in the Google Doodle contest with a really impressive drawing (vote for her here). The school she's in added to the kiddush Hashem by balancing their stance on the Internet with her accomplishments, and combined forces with an understanding Google for a pair of assemblies in her honor which also stressed how each person has their own talents they can use to achieve in life. Really well done all around.
• (HT: Jonathan H.) A fantastic smackdown by R' Shteinman of school administrators looking to reject kids who aren't "the right type" for their school. He questions why this family isn't good enough for the school, he calls out the egotism of the parents who think less of other parents, and when the administrator refers to the person as important, then R' Shteinman calls him an even bigger ba'al ga'avah. It's troubling what pains the administrators go to to try and get a heter to reject the kids, and they don't quite seem to get that R' Shteinman's lines are partially directed at them, but it's an incredible video worth watching. He also notes that he and the Brisker Rav and others went to regular Talmud Torahs growing up, and wonders why that's not good enough for these parents who are concerned about the influence these children of open-minded parents will have on their own:

  "He's worried about his kids going off the derech? Kids in the good schools go off the derech too."