I don’t think there has ever been another time in my
lifetime where the world has been so divided. It seems as though nobody can get
along right now. People are fighting about when/if school should start, they’re
fighting about whether or not masks are effective, they’re fighting about
whether or not businesses should be allowed to open, and they’re fighting over
pretty much anything and everything in between. The negativity is overwhelming.
The world is in absolute chaos and it makes me sad.
Unfortunately, I feel like social media is amplifying the
negativity. Anyone can have a “microphone” at their fingertips to tell everyone
else what they think of them. Local news outlets social media feeds are filled
with comments of people verbally attacking each other and it is getting
seriously out of hand. What ever happened to following the golden rule, “treat
others the way you would like to be treated”?
In my opinion, we can all disagree and still be civil. We
can disagree without hating each other. We can disagree and not end friendships
over it. The confrontations of people in stores yelling at each other, and in
some cases, killing each other over masks is absurd.
Of course, we can’t all agree on everything, but I think we
can all agree that this is hard. This is the first time many of us have went
through a pandemic, and we are all just doing the best we can.
We can all agree that having people die from COVID-19 is
terrible, that the loss that businesses are experiencing is awful, and that
this school year is going to be really hard for the kids and teachers. We can
all agree that many of us are confused, worried, and are second-guessing many
of our decisions because it’s hard to know what the right one is.
For me, I just have to believe that there will come a day in
the future where we can see each other’s faces while in public, a day where we
can hug each other without getting dirty looks from strangers, and a day when
we don’t have to use rubber gloves to pump our gas. Unfortunately, I think we
still have several more months of living this “new normal”, but I’m hopeful
that it will end someday, and until then we can all try to be a bit more
loving, thoughtful, and kind.
Published in The Tremonton Leader in August 2020
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