A week
or so ago, someone posted on Facebook a picture of our current president. It was taken when he was in
college. I have include the photo
below. The words written upon the
face of it went something like this: “Everytime
I look at this picture I cannot believe this piece of crap became our
president” I looked at the shot and what I saw was a college
student dressed in jeans and a
sweater, sitting on a couch with another person relaxing.
I was
perplexed by this statement . the
whole situation kept coming back into my head as I went on with my week. I have noticed this trend of taking aim
at your political opponents by smearing and attempting to slander them, spread
lies about them, imply things about them and generally be mean and hateful
towards them.
The fact
that this photo comment survived and was reposted by other people was
disturbing to me. In the 60’s when
I was in college there was an expression that went like this:
“If you are not part of the solution,
then you are part of the problem”.
It is
against the law to have an accident and leave the scene. We call that a "Hit and Run". The law requires us to take
responsibility for how we interact in our cars. There are laws against hate crimes. These laws reflect our national
ethics. We, at least legally, chose to not be terrorists, blind haters or people who act out physically
against other human beings.
I wonder
how all of this verbal nastiness has snuck by the censors. Is it not cowardly to try to
shame, embarrass, demean our public figures. What happened to being part of the solution?
It seems
to me that our country was set up so that we could participate in the
governing. We have the right to
run against our political opponents, to talk about issues and educate people
who disagree with us to and to try and open the views of our opponent to another perspective. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes we are not. Have we turned into a nation of poor losers. If we don't get our way, do we not only take the ball home, but try and burn down the stadium?
This
essay is not about my political views.
I am sure we can look at each past president for the past 50 years and
point to strong and weaker skill
sets within each term of office.
But does disagreeing with someone, or in fact losing the election to the
“other guy” really mean that we should spend the entire term of office
attacking, slandering and undermining what they are doing.
What if
we each took our own inventory……(not a bad thing to do regularly) and ask ourselves these questions:
How have I been part of the
problem that I am so mad about?
What can I do to become part
of the solution to this issue?
How can I enter into a
dialog about values and goals that might help find a compromise that will work for all of us?
Have we become a nation that is all
about winning….at any cost? How is
this back stabbing, hateful verbage any less damaging that hate crimes. It comes from ignorance, laziness of
our mental capacity, and the anonymity provided by the internet. I believe we can do better and I
encourage to think about how YOU might do better.
We are all blessed with such riches of experience, wealth and tribal lore and knowledge. If we dip our brushes in the pots of creativity and generosity we have the ability to solve the problems in the world, feed the people, care for the planet, and remind ourselves and others that we can do all we do with gentleness and dignity.
Blessings to you all. Los Osos September 5, 2014
Misty
No comments:
Post a Comment