We pile people into boxes. We sort and divide a few of them in our mind and then we stuff everyone like them in the same place, labeling them with out sharpie pen. We write labels like black, white, racist, cop, democrat, republican. People are more complex then the superficial label we put on them. We have to stop looking at one small part of them and and assume that is all they are. We also have to stop identifying ohrselves as this or that. We are all individuals. Our thoughts, our experiences and our actions separate us from everyone else. This anger, this tit for tat and eye for an eye mentality is poisoning humanity one person at a time. Right has to start here. Right now. We can’t go back and right every wrong but we can sure as hell stop another one from happening. We have to stand together, side by side, hand in hand but our anger keeps us worlds apart. Anger breeds hate and hate breeds pain. What more is there to say? How many more years can we survive as what we are slowly becoming? How do we change it? How do we stop the madness? Do not become part of the problem. Be an example of peace, forgiveness, love. Don’t make excuses for anyone in any situation at any level. Right has to be right and wrong has to be punished every single time. Whether you are the Secretary of State, a police officer or a common criminal, wrong has to be treated as wrong and we need to make an example of wrong by punishing actions every single time. No exceptions. No get out of jail free card no matter who you are, what job you hold or the color of your skin. No giving a pass because of something in the past that was handled wrong or a situation that wasn’t handled at all. Can we do that? Will we do that? It doesn’t seem so at this point in time. I don’t think we want it bad enough. We are more focused on power and retribution than we are making this world a better place. It starts with you and me. One person, one day at a time, one decision at a time.
anewperspectiveperhaps 
Hi Kim. Here is my take on current affairs of social degeneration. Your latest blog entry seemed a good jumping off point for my own thoughts so I’m posting them here.
I learned about what happened in Dallas last night and heard a bit of the coverage and have heard some people say that it was a premeditated act of execution or even terrorism, that someone took upon himself to kill cops.
My heart grows heavier every day as I hear about more and more of these tragic events happening, not only in our own country but around the world, Innocent lives lost to different extremists (no matter what the religion is) police brutality, and officers killed in the middle of what people claim are peaceful rallies. Perhaps the rally started out peaceful but if a live or 20 are lost during such a congregation of individuals, it then becomes an event that is no longer peaceful, no matter how many individuals did not want it to go down that way.
Whoever killed the cops should be served justice in the swiftest most appropriate means possible and if it is determined by a jury of 12, if it ever gets to court that it should be the death penalty, then so be it.
To the cops who abuse their power and privilege of serving our great nation, you aren’t innocent either but this is nothing new. It only seems so because we have social media, citizen reporters by virtue of cellular technology and an irresponsible media who are very good at playing one side against the other in a never-ending political agenda of divide and conquer which leave the citizens vulnerable to being more and more manipulated because they continually lose trust in authority, after all, remember Rodney King? The media just played the clip of the police officers beating him over and over until it was indelibly etched in the minds of the people that the cops were the bad guys in that situation.
You didn’t see much about what happened beforehand and it’s the same with these other cases.
You had rap stars in the 90’s saying “fck the police” and album titles like cop killer, or maybe that was a song but you get the idea.
are there bad cops? Absolutely and they should be tried and reprimanded for brutality that occurs when it does and if someone dies as a result of such brutality, that policeman should also be subject to the same swift justice that I spoke of previously.
every life matters, I’ll say it again for clarity, Every Life Matters. Not black lives, not LGBT lives, not disabled lives, not Indian, not Asian, but all lives matter and the recent black lives matter movement has resulted in a further fragmentation of a society that was already broken by division driven agendas for a long time.
If you are suspected of a crime and told to lay on the ground and you don’t and it appears to the officer who suspects you of a criminal activity that you’re going for a gun, he’s acting on his training to respond to that situation, common sense and logic tell me that. Don’t react yet because I’m not finished.
It is not necessary for that same officer who may genuinely be in fear of his life to shoot a suspect multiple times which may result in death of the suspect in question, something else common sense should tell anyone.
Sure, an officer can say that he didn’t intend that the suspect die as a result of whatever police brutality was applied but as mike Brady once said “intentions are not good enough”. If I told the IRS that I intended to pay my taxes but the check got lost in the mail, would I be let off? Certainly not and neither should a police officer be given a slap on the wrist and/or administrative leave with or without pay when a suspect meets his or her demise under the charge of that officer. a death is a death no matter what the intention and if the loss of life is as serious of an issue as some claim in this country, what of the penalties for that loss? Where is the personal responsibility on both sides of the debate?
I have good and dear friends who are minorities, hell, I’m a minority myself, and I have no reason to not believe these people when they tell me that there are racially motivated incidents that occur to people with such minority statuses by the very people who have sworn to protect them.
The day after the Dallas shootings, certain media outlets are silent about the event but those same individuals would be all over the internet with outrage if it was another person killed by a cop. This further reaffirms the sad reality that not all lives matter, only those that fulfill a need to further a specific political anti-cop agenda within certain parts of our society.
We live in a hyper reactive hair-trigger society now where there seems to be almost no justification needed for someone to be killed, no matter which side of the law you’re on. But if you’re a public servant and you have probable cause for arresting someone suspected of a crime, what is your reaction supposed to be when you’re constantly emendated with rhetoric that says that all cops are bad, all minorities are unjustly sought out to be perpetrators of criminal activity and that only certain lives matter, wouldn’t that put you on ultra-high alert and naturally elevate your reactive reflexes when someone resists arrest?
To balance out that question, and I haven’t been arrested so I don’t have firsthand experience with this but when you’re a cop and you tell someone to lay on the ground, how are you delivering that directive? If it’s by way of getting in the face of the suspect and screaming confrontationally, consider how that will lead the suspect to respond for a moment.
Confrontation breeds conflict and more confrontation, resulting in an endless circle of violence against each other that has almost no hope of being broken.
I could go into what I think is partly responsible for this and hell, I might as well, why not?
Part of the blame for all this shit lays at the feet of the entertainment industry, all aspects from television and movies to music and video games. Just consider the reality for a moment, you may agree with part of what I say, and if you don’t, that’s okay too.
Consider the television shows that they make for children these days. How much violence occurs in one episode of some of the more popular shows? Hollywood’s flimsy excuse for pedaling such inappropriate media to children is that it sells and therefore there is a demand for the content.
Look at how many people feel the need to be continuously bombarded by text messaging, email, Facebook twitter, and the like. I’m guilty of it myself, when I’m spending time with the kids at the park, I’ll pull my phone out once in a while to either check for email or respond to a text but I don’t have it out all the time reading Facebook or twitter.
Look at all the road rage around you, people cutting other people off just to gain 10 seconds of time to get where they’re going. Multiply that out and you have overwhelming traffic jams which stress people out more and more every day.
We have learned to devalue life from the messages of planned parenthood who makes millions a year on abortions. Hollywood makes billions a year making movies that glorify and celebrate violence but do the gun control crowds say “follow the money” to those two organizations like they do with the NRA?
Most people don’t demonize those two organizations for their cultural role in the rise of perceived meaninglessness of the lives of their fellow man. Look in the phone book and see if there are as many organizations that offer adoption services, rather than abortions for young women who are pregnant. And for the record, I believe abortion is a personal choice and the government should have no say at all in that. But present all the alternatives to someone in that situation, not just the easiest and the one that will make the most money for an organization who has a monetary interest in the woman making the choice that will best serve the financial needs of said organization. If it’s okay to kill innocent life then all bets are off on people who piss us off, believe differently than we do, harm someone we love, etc.
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Well said! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Most of yours match my own. The problems are many and run very deep. You nailed most of them on the head. I am scared for my children as I watch what people are becoming day after day. It is disheartening and scary to the core. Where did everything go so wrong? It’s hard to watch.
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Thank you both for sharing your insights into these troubling problems. I agree with your comments.
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This is beautifully and passionately written. I can see the passion come through in your writing and you are absolutely correct, things have to change here and now. The hate needs to stop from every single angle. Seeing such situations play out and every time watching them grow bigger and heavier is frightening. It feels like society begins colliding like those tumbleweeds (I think that’s what they are called) where they seem to increase in size and eventually gather in groups as they are moved by the winds. Society needs to stop, from all angles, with the hate and anger. It will certainly not resolve anything. When is enough “enough”?
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I say today is enough! You are so right. It really pains me to watch this happen and I will not be a pawn in a game I don’t want to play. I will never become part of the problem! Thanks so much for your comment. I really appreciate it.
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