Where to begin? Well, the title says a lot. There are so many things I want to say about current events that simply do not play well on social media sites. Not enough space and too little time in view. So here goes.
Recent events around the black lives matter events, police office shootings, and other related events give me much pause. I pray for all of the people involved who died, survived and now must find a way to move forward in life. I cannot make sense of the senseless.
Shooting 12 police officers from a sniper's nest is just plain wrong under any circumstances I can imagine. This act of violence does not make right any wrong doing by any police officer anywhere. It is vigilante justice and cold blooded murder. It cannot be repeated, justified, or explained away.
We live in a free society, and as such, people are free to pretty much do as they please, as long as they do not infringe on others' rights to the same. That goes for police, citizens and visitors in our country. We must assume a certain amount of risk that there are bad people making bad decisions in this life, and we may suffer the consequences of those actions. We can only deal with a majority of crimes, we cannot eliminate them. Laws do not prevent crimes. Laws make punishing criminals possible. Hence, there will always be criminals.
Social media, including the news media, has been reduced to sound bites and short video clips. We have developed a sense of decision making based on quick bursts of partial amounts of data and information. We tend to make rash decisions as a result. We do not stop and think. We do not think critically enough at times. This hurts us a nation and as people.
We spend more time finding blame than solutions. Dialogue is needed, but that means listening and speaking. I probably do not listen well enough often enough, but I get better as I grow older. I have strong opinions that I can support with facts and expert opinions. Others have as well. That does not mean we are always right.
I believe our country was founded on the best possible principles for any group of people to live under. Our constitution is a great document which we are abandoning piece by piece. We were once a principled, united nation, but now we are becoming a selfish, splintered one. We have changed from 'e pluribus unum' to groups of aggrieved persons constantly finding fault with one another. For a while after 9/11 we joined together, but it lasted only a brief time.
Our country is great but not without a history of doing wrong to people. Though we treated some groups with hatred and distrust, we always worked toward improving ourselves. We fought wars to free people around the world, and in our own country. Groups of people battled to gain the equality they deserved. They met resistance, but then they won over large numbers of people to their cause.
This is still the greatest nation ever devised on earth, but it must be maintained and continually improved. Any actions we take, or words we speak, must be for the greater good of all.
I am never going to agree with all people always on some issues, but I think we can all agree that the United States of America deserves our best efforts to peacefully find solutions and to value each other as flawed human beings.
I wrote this in rather general terms, as my blog posts contain my positions on specific matters. More will be added over time on various topics.
Recent events around the black lives matter events, police office shootings, and other related events give me much pause. I pray for all of the people involved who died, survived and now must find a way to move forward in life. I cannot make sense of the senseless.
Shooting 12 police officers from a sniper's nest is just plain wrong under any circumstances I can imagine. This act of violence does not make right any wrong doing by any police officer anywhere. It is vigilante justice and cold blooded murder. It cannot be repeated, justified, or explained away.
We live in a free society, and as such, people are free to pretty much do as they please, as long as they do not infringe on others' rights to the same. That goes for police, citizens and visitors in our country. We must assume a certain amount of risk that there are bad people making bad decisions in this life, and we may suffer the consequences of those actions. We can only deal with a majority of crimes, we cannot eliminate them. Laws do not prevent crimes. Laws make punishing criminals possible. Hence, there will always be criminals.
Social media, including the news media, has been reduced to sound bites and short video clips. We have developed a sense of decision making based on quick bursts of partial amounts of data and information. We tend to make rash decisions as a result. We do not stop and think. We do not think critically enough at times. This hurts us a nation and as people.
We spend more time finding blame than solutions. Dialogue is needed, but that means listening and speaking. I probably do not listen well enough often enough, but I get better as I grow older. I have strong opinions that I can support with facts and expert opinions. Others have as well. That does not mean we are always right.
I believe our country was founded on the best possible principles for any group of people to live under. Our constitution is a great document which we are abandoning piece by piece. We were once a principled, united nation, but now we are becoming a selfish, splintered one. We have changed from 'e pluribus unum' to groups of aggrieved persons constantly finding fault with one another. For a while after 9/11 we joined together, but it lasted only a brief time.
Our country is great but not without a history of doing wrong to people. Though we treated some groups with hatred and distrust, we always worked toward improving ourselves. We fought wars to free people around the world, and in our own country. Groups of people battled to gain the equality they deserved. They met resistance, but then they won over large numbers of people to their cause.
This is still the greatest nation ever devised on earth, but it must be maintained and continually improved. Any actions we take, or words we speak, must be for the greater good of all.
I am never going to agree with all people always on some issues, but I think we can all agree that the United States of America deserves our best efforts to peacefully find solutions and to value each other as flawed human beings.
I wrote this in rather general terms, as my blog posts contain my positions on specific matters. More will be added over time on various topics.
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