The year 2020 has been difficult for us all. The entire world has been rocked by a pandemic. Here in America, just as we began to open, ever-important and often swept under the rug race relations issues came to a head with the killing of 46-year old George Floyd by a police officer and his three colleagues.
Race relations – I had to step back and read those words again, even after I wrote them.
Race. Relations.
Why aren’t humans human in 2020? Haven’t we come far enough for relations to be resolved?
No.
The short answer is no. The long answer swims somewhere near no, and our issues are larger than race relations yet as simple as kindness and empathy.
Empathy:
Just how do we process everything happening today?
The past two weeks have presented:
- Police officers saying, “Stop treating us like thugs.” (insert eyeroll here)
- Gaslighting, which I’ve learned has become a trend here in America as people refuse accountability
. - Apologies from the NFL and a backlash from fans. When is an apology not okay?
- Black Lives Matter with two different scenes coming out of Seattle’s capital district and beautiful acts of kindness and coming together all over.
- Police dying. Hard working people we know working non-stop on week three of shifts to protect and serve.
- More police brutality. A 75-year old man pushed by police, the action denied until video proof appeared all over media, then our country’s leader suggesting publicly the man fall harder than he should have implying his purpose was to appear to have been pushed.
- Lack of education and understanding over the Defund the Police movement while departments change all across the country.
- NASCAR and Confederate Flags. Drivers leaving; fans in outrage while others stand eager to let a symbol of hatred fall to the history books.
- Gone with the Wind pulled from shelves – coming back with new educational information. It’s important to know that because this movie is almost 100 years old now, younger generations do not know or understand the world as it was, as it is, or as it should be.
- JK Rowling’s comments on people who menstruate, defining a woman, our transgender communities, and the discovery of the conversion therapy neurologist behind her pen name.
- Protests in pandemic as COVID19 numbers rise.
- Bodies of children missing for months in a strange and wildly webbed case of love, deceit, and murder.
- Another black father murdered by police in a drive-thru in Georgia.
- Outrage, misinformation, and misunderstanding over changes in long-overdue branding for products like Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s.
- DACA – celebration and fear over a policy about who gets to decide the definition of home and the punishment of children for adult choices.
- Half a year into this year of promise, tranquil waiting, and uprising, we have job loss, racism, destruction, blame, and revolution.
In a world where we can choose our behaviors, why aren’t we choosing to actively listen with kindness?
I have a lot to process.
We all do.
If you’re an empath as I am, and you feel it all, please take a break.
I’m sure this list doesn’t include recent major events because I’ve forced myself to stop listening, stop reading, and process.
I will take one hot topic at a time and dive into each piece by piece. It doesn’t make my articles hot and trendy on-the-nose-current-by-the-hour information, but it does allow me time to research and process the emotions behind my side, all other sides, and what we might take from it all after emotions have settled.
In the end, kindness and understanding matter most, and it ‘s empathy that will bring us together.
Be well
~Stella