“I never worry about action, but only inaction“, Winston Churchill once declared, reiterating, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

It is a view that members of the churches of Scientology embrace, as specifically articulated by the founder of the religion, L. Ron Hubbard: “The wrong thing to do is nothing... anything you do is not as wrong as doing nothing”, he said.

We live in a world where pessimism is often the order of the day, bringing apathy in its wake, and where a daily media diet of crime, violence and disaster breeds a feeling among the individual citizens that nothing can be done. Yet behind the gloomy headlines, much is being done by people of all races and creeds to better conditions for themselves and their fellows.

Acts of heroism and selflessness that most of us never hear about take place every day: activists investigating and exposing the sinister trade in sexual slavery; civil liberties campaigners challenging efforts to erode the free speech rights of citizens and the media; religious freedom advocates combating discrimination in our own backyard (such as in Bavaria, where the government still denies Muslims the freedom to erect suitable places of worship).

Good news that brings about a better quality of life for others is as worthy of the front-page as bad news—more so, in fact. Since its opening in September 2003, the Church of Scientology International's European Office for Public Affairs and Human Rights has become a source for that kind of positive change and good news throughout the continent.