OK, so I might ruffle a few feathers, but when has that stopped me before, right?
This is a rewrite of a post I wrote about a year and a half ago.
Right now, here we are. In the moment. Doing. Moving. Breathing. Living our life.
And then it happens. Something we don’t want, but now, we have come to expect.
A tragedy.
Lives are disrupted, lost and memorialized. We wonder why. What happened? What could
have gone wrong? When will things change and improve?
Wake up – it hits us. The Anger. The Rage. The Pain. The Fear. The Anguish.
And The Hate.
When will it end? Why can’t we get this thing called Kindness, Compassion,
Love, Empathy and Togetherness right?
It seems so simple; we teach our Preschool and Elementary kiddos to be kind, use
nice words, actions and gestures. “Think of others first” we say to them;
because we know that they are young, malleable, impressionable and sweet. Hoping it
will stick to them like glue.
We KNOW they can do better than we did.
We KNOW they can help us to improve our world.
We KNOW they are the only ones we can count on to be what our society isn’t.
But, for some reason, it isn’t working. It is broken, and so are we.
Why can’t we get this right? The hatred. The fury. The disgust. The judgement.
The ignorance.
The inability to reflect, stop and think.
Not a day goes by in this amazing country that we don’t relive Normandy, Vietnam,
Selma, 9/11, Holocaust, Columbine, Boston Marathon Bombings; need I list more?
No. We know them all, or at least most of them.
They just repeat with a theme; Racism, Hate, War, Mental Illness,
Misunderstandings, Ignorance and Lack of Empathy.
Who are we, my friends? Have we lost our minds? Why can’t we get it right? We have a
leader in Washington DC that thought draining the swamp meant to
eradicate all the good, treat others with disgust and hatred and words that cannot
be forgotten.
We have members of Congress that can’t see past the money
they get from the NRA, Big Pharma, Exxon-Mobil, AT&T and
so many more; that they can’t see straight.
In 2018, we had more hate groups in the US now, than ever
(1020 and growing -see map HERE ).
What is wrong with us? Why is #Kindness so difficult?
The movie Wonder come out with the #ChooseKind movement. I just
wrote my first picture book called One Drop of Kindness. Check it out. But, Why. Is.
KINDNESS So. Hard?
The Olympics come and go; we bond together in our love of sports.
Our Women’s National Soccer Team just crushed the World. Americans unite.
But, you Know what? Each amazing female
athlete that is on the team will receive roughly $260K. Not a bad amount you may think
…until you realize that the Men’s Team would have each gotten about $1.1M.
Yes, that’s correct.
The women get about 24% of what their male counterparts! WTF?!
What if we decided to be kind AND equitable everyday?
What if our students had the consistent message that they count and matter?
What if all Americans could have affordable Health Care, both Physical and Mental
when they needed it?
What if we only used guns for protection, hunting and sporting, and like many of
the safest countries in the world, we did not allow semi and automatic weapons?
What if All students had a say in his/her education?
What if all Black, White, Brown, and every other color person actually got along
because they cared about each other?
What if the President and Congress actually worked for the People of the
United States? Not for Special Interests? or Himself and his ego?
What if we all just did better. A little at a time. Every day.
Let’s just disrupt the status quo. Today. Right Now.
Do it with kindness, intention, betterment of others and to bring equity to our world.
One Ripple at a time.
I’m willing to try. Are you?