Open Letter to My Fellow Citizens…

WTF?  I ‘ll say it again for the people in the back…WTF?

Have any of you looked in a mirror lately?  Listened to the words as they left your mouth?  Reread the words you have pounded out on a keyboard?  No?  I can’t say I’m surprised.

Let me begin by saying that I am appalled at what happened to George Floyd.  He shouldn’t have died and I won’t qualify that.  He shouldn’t have died for any reason.  By the way, I don’t know one person, not one, that believes otherwise.  I’m sure they exist but I’ve not met one yet and in my circle of friends and family I’m not likely to.   I truly believe the vast majority of citizens in the US are sickened by racism, sexism, religious discrimination or sectarianism of any sort.  So why is everyone acting like they are the only ones?

WTF? Can we just get one thing out of the way?  Hate is hate.  There are not degrees of hate, it is not justifiable, and whether you claim to hate blacks, whites, law enforcement, a religious group, gays, a political party, men or women; it’s just hate and it’s just ugly.  As long as the word invades your speech or your thoughts you are already lost.  The only thing separating you from Lee Harvey Oswald, or Timothy McVeigh, or Tyrone Mitchell, or Mohammed Atta, or Derek Chauvin is you have not yet acted on your hate.

While multiple pleas in the last few days have gone out for honest dialogues about difficult topics, I have struggled as I watched those that were brave enough to comment with differing opinions have every syllable of their thoughts dissected, vilified, and insulted.  WTF?  If everyone came from the same place there would be no reason for conversation, but if we ever hope for a change we must be able to listen and try to comprehend.  As many people struggle to understand something that defies understanding, how we approach their questions and concerns will have everything to do with how they come away from the exchange.

WTF?  Why does it take a nearly 65-year-old woman to explain that when you insult a child for trying to express her views instead of helping her learn that which she is too young to yet know, all you will accomplish is to create another individual that will have no desire in the future to learn, discuss, or think of others.

Mahatma Ghandi had no problem cutting to the chase.  When he said, “Be the change you want to see in the world” he was on to something.  For some, issues with race or religion or sexual orientation are as ingrained as the DNA that determines our eye color.  Generations have helped form these opinions and just because our impatient, short attention span selves want to see this wrapped up by tomorrow or the next day, it’s not happening.  It will happen from what we model to the youth of our world; our children and their children.  It will be slow, it will be excruciating at times, but if we start each day being the change we want to see, it will come.  Stop lecturing everyone on how they should think and act and be the example.

Finally….law enforcement.  WTF!  This eye-for-an-eye thing, it doesn’t work. Not even a little bit.  What happened to George Floyd has nothing to do with a police officer in Las Vegas, or St, Louis, or Davenport, Iowa.   George Floyd was a father, a Christian, a son, a brother, loved by his family, and a flawed man. .  The law enforcement officers being attacked all over this country can be described the same way and this tit-for-tat thing…it’s BS.   A job in law enforcement is incredibly difficult.  If you haven’t done it you probably have no understanding of how hard it can be…and how thankless.  I suggest the same course of action as above.  Find a law enforcement officer.  Ask questions, find out about their job and what makes it so hard and the stress they are under minute to minute while they are working. If you can’t paint all the members of a race with one brush then you can’t do it for law enforcement either. Really people…WTF!