We have a Super Power. One that not everyone has. We can use that power to entertain and inform, and also to help heal those around us. Or we can cause hurt.
I know that sounds pretty pretentious, but it’s true. We can write positive things, or we can write “other” things. We can understand that everyone has an opinion, and while it might not be the same as ours, they ARE entitled to an opinion. If we can have a calm, polite discourse to discuss our opinions, then we should take the opportunity. But if we, or they, can’t be polite, step back—don’t push back.
We all need to return to a time when everyone was entitled to an opinion, but not entitled to force them upon anyone else. To a time when none of us had the right to hurt others to support our opinions. I hope all of you remember those times, because if you don’t, it’s very sad. I, personally, have been lucky, I guess, because I have a lot of those memories. I don’t want them permanently replaced by some of the things I’m seeing and hearing now—and have for more than two years.
When people I know, work with, have been friends with forever, say that someone who has a different political opinion should be hung, well, I have to stop and wonder if they could possibly mean that. What if I was that person? Would they stand in the crowd and jeer and call for “Death to the Monster” like the horde of villagers in Frankenstein?
I hope, instead, that we’ve just gotten a little too used to the rhetoric we hear from all around—repeated ad nauseum—especially on social media—and just automatically parrot it. If that’s the case, then we can stop. Just. Stop. Doing. It. We can also delete posts that promote the negative, or at least do our own research to make sure what we’re reading is true. Find solutions that don’t harm one to benefit the other. Have civil dialogues to seek out the ways we are alike rather than different.
Yes, I know there will always be Haters and Hurters. Just like there will always be criminals. But let’s make sure it’s not us. Let’s use our Super Power for Good, not Evil. Let’s be a part of the solution, not the problem. I challenge you all to use your words to do everything you can to change the world for the better. And when we do, we will have even more reason to celebrate at Colorado Gold. Who’s with me?
Image: Pixabay John Hain