I've been perhaps a little quiet this week. As many people know, there's some incredibly active movements going on out there in the country following the horrendous death of George Floyd. It wouldn't be true if I said that what I've seen hasn't been emotionally challenging to me. I have a difficult time with protests in general, because I'm sensitive to shouting and loudness, but it turned horrifying when the vandalism and looting began to happen. That was really taxing on me. I know those things happen, and worse, but being aware of it doesn't change the disappointment I feel every time I see people acting at such a low level of humanity. However, once I took a small break from it all, I decided to sit back and listen to the voices on all sides of the issues, and look a little more into what was going on. I won't go into detail about a lot of those things I discovered, but I will say that listening to all of the sides, I turned out more enlightened about what was going on. There are several issues going on in this situation that should be addressed and no longer ignored. I'm not going into specific details here about what insights I gained, but I will say briefly that I've become more aware of the messages Black Lives Matter is trying to send, and I respect their efforts to bring that message out, because there are important things it is bringing out that shouldn't be ignored.
My whole point of this post is to point out the value I had in stepping back and taking the time to look at everyone's views, including the ones I don't agree with as much. It gave me a whole new picture of what was going on than if I only kept my focus on one side.
That being said, I still hold firm to the hope that our society will come together and make life better for all. I love that some governing officials as well as other authorities are taking the time to reach out to the other sides and talking to them to discuss their concerns. I love people coming together to support each other. I love seeing people listening to each other to understand. I love people who offer an extending hand to help those people and properties affected by the violence. This is what we should have done in the first place. I know for some people this is not enough, but it is a good start.
