First of all, this is not meant to be a political commentary. I am not here to bash or support either side. I don't care who you vote for, nor am I going to tell you who I support. This is merely my observation and honest opinion.
A week or so ago, I logged on to Facebook just to check a status. There was a post from a friend that a fellow agent had passed away. This lady fought valiantly against a muscular disease. At the end, she was paralyzed and in pain. She was trapped in a body that had become a prison for her. Her mind was still sharp, but her body not cooperative. I read a post by her daughter and husband, both experiencing extreme grief at their loss and commenting on how much they were going to miss their mother and wife. The next post was from a friend who is battling cancer and undergoes surgery next week in hopes of removing the cancerous tumor from her liver. A broker that I used to work for is in the hosptial in critical condition with an undiagnosed illness serious enough to have him in a coma. I should have quit reading there, but surfed on throught the feed. There was post after post after post about the presidential candidates, the U.S. system of government, people complaining about their insurance coverage, arguments over imaginary supreme court nominations and people who were hacked off at their jobs, spouse, school system and the improvement our tax district is doing to prevent a recurrance of recent flooding-it has caused a few traffic nightmares. And most of these weren't just the run of the mill rants. There were many downright hateful posts, some using language that, let's just say, they didn't learn in Sunday School. It seems like it's pretty easy to sit behind a keyboard and be mean.
All of a sudden it got to me. Here I am getting updates on fellow human beings who are, or have been, fighting for their lives. Families are grieving. And in the midst of it all, hate is spewing from all sides. How did we get here? What happened to being nice? When did it become ok to just let anything fall out of your mouth without thinking who you might be hurting? I'm sure we can point fingers in all directions, the media, social media, the presidential campaign, the current police situations, the "haters gonna hate" garbage, etc, etc. Where does it stop? It stops with each of us. Remember your Momma saying "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything?". Maybe we should try that for a day, or even a week. What about staying positive. It's easy to lash out when someone disses your candidate, sports team, or your religious views, but what if, instead we were to agree to disagree. What about just a positive response that you respect that person's point of view. I truly do not believe that it's impossible. It starts with each one of us. My grandpa always taught me to leave things better than I found them. So my mission is to take a deep breath, hear your point of view and respect you as a human being. Maybe, just maybe I can stop a little of the hate. And, if we all did it, think of what we could accomplish!
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