This Just Sucks

This just all sucks right now. That’s all there is to say about it. I never say that really, nor do I ever think that hardly at all. What happened to George Floyd we have all watched on television, and I’d say almost all of us agree it was terrible. And if you don’t, you likely have a mental illness.

Racism is ignorance, violence is stupidity, looting is incomprehensible, and it’s all not ok. I’m not black so I don’t know what it is like in those shoes, and I don’t have the answers or the solution. But as with any situation or experience, we must ask ourselves, what can we learn from this. And it appears there is a whole lot of learning for all involved much like most all situations.

What we do know is we need leaders from all parties or groups to step up and lead. Actions are louder than words. Attitudes are stronger than words. More is caught than is taught. What we have is what we tolerate. Racism is wrong. Violence is wrong. And we must not tolerate either. We all need to say it’s all wrong.

We must demand and expect excellence in all areas of life and relationships we are involved in. We don’t have time for this nonsense. There are bad cops but the vast majority are tremendous lifesavers. There are bad people, but the majority are good and desire good. Social media is putting a wedge between most everyone on many subjects. Social media is killing us with agitation, anger, and continual typing and hitting send messages not meant to heal, bring people together for good, or demand for excellence.

We must also always give dignity to others. The Golden Rule is old and simple, yet we often don’t always act it out every single day, which is simply to treat others as we wish to be treated, and that often starts with simple dignity. Dignity is defined as the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. We can all think of someone who has not offered us dignity or the act of respect. And that feeling we had in that situation didn’t feel good. So it is very simple, we must always offer dignity to others, even when you are challenged to do so. Because I promise you, you will never regret offering dignity to others.

Many of us believe “all lives matter”. But we must have some empathy and shine a light on good black lives matter and good blue lives matter. George’s life mattered, and so have many others in the past. Shine a light on it through peace, not violence. White supremacists are morons. Antifa are morons. There are morons of all races because they simply don’t live by the Golden Rule and offer dignity to others even when their mentation is challenged to do so.

We don’t have the answers or solutions. But talking about is starts the solution. And offering people the chance to be treated with dignity and the Golden Rule is a demand from us, or should be, be it in life, parenting, leading, teaching, coaching, or rule of law and interacting with the law.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” Martin Luther King, Jr.