The Way I See It

Today something bothered me that really shouldn’t have, but it did. I try to not let people’s opinions of me affect me in anyway. Usually I succeed. Today though a complete stranger made comments on comments I made to a friend and they did it without knowing the first thing about me, yet they felt free to berate me. Their attitude was one of superiority believing, I surmised, that they knew more than me and that their opinion mattered more than mine.

Needless to say I didn’t respond to the bashing and let my friend handle the situation as she wished since it was a comment conversation between just the two of us. Although that should have been the end of it, it still stuck in my craw all day.

I decided to rid myself of this annoying feeling and decided I needed to write this blog instead. The conversation’s subject was the plight of the recent attacks on Asian people and how these attacks are not widely published nor reported upon as loudly as other folks attacks are. My entire gist of this was empathy on my part and my belief that unity in this nation can only become reality when we truly accept one another.

For me no one race, no one religion is superior to the other for all of our pasts as immigrants have suffered through various atrocities and through the decades our lives have each improved enough to allow the same opportunities for each of us living in America. We may never be able to completely change our circumstances or our class but we all have the same opportunity to be decent and caring. We all don’t have to choose cruelty or criminality toward each other but if we do choose those ways then we risk becoming evil. The objection to my way of thinking was basically because I stated all lives matter, because to me they do. I don’t believe in blm because I don’t believe one race any race should think they are better or less than the other. I have always believed this way and will continue to believe it. The objector called me a hidden racist for this belief.

That person’s attitude toward me was that I was ignorant without empathy and had no right to state my opinion because of my belief. My first reaction was astonishment that someone got all that from something I stated honestly and from my core. I consider myself a strong empath with an open mind. So to see someone disparage my being with his words was truly something I wanted to defend, but out of respect for my friend I didn’t. I have lived my life accepting people for who they are as people, regardless of their mistakes or their background. I have opened my heart, my home, myself to people from around the world and America because it was the right thing for me to do. I would do it again if I was in the same position. I still offer my ear, my shoulders, my heart to people who turn to me in need whether I am able to afford it or not. I do not ask for anything in return. I think respect is earned not given. I believe in law and order. I believe in second chances. I also believe because of my lifelong experiences that evil exists as well as good. For me it takes a constant lifestyle of hurting and harming people to call you evil. For me there is no rhyme or reason for evil to still exist. For me this criminal and cruel behavior toward the innocent is illogical and stems from malice, ignorance, and hate. There is nothing wrong in my thinking for I have seen evil first hand just as I have seen good first hand. There is a distinct difference in the the two.

I also love my country because from what I have seen from places and people the world over, it is this country that gives hope and opportunity to anyone who seeks it. Have some Americans shown an evil side? Absolutely yes and our shame lies in those Americans. Yet I still see the majority of present day Americans who believe the same way I do and carry that hope forward with their strength and beliefs. I am baffled by many as well who think people who still believe in America have something wrong with them. I am confused by the superior attitudes and false ideas that somehow Americans are responsible for all the evil in the world today. If there was any truth to that we would have been destroyed many years ago by a higher power, but we haven’t been and my hope is we will never be for America can be everything it was meant to be by all those who held fast and acted righteously through the decades.

My final thought here is for people in this country to stop judging others without knowing them. Leave the judging out of your lives and instead start giving the benefit of doubt to those who express their thoughts wherever that may be. Don’t harm each other in anyway. Do that and we live to see another day. Be true to yourself but accept the premise courteously that others may not feel the same way. Believe in diversity in America because it is the very bane of our existence. Do not assume anything about anyone for there are generally reasons for the things people say and do, but do not allow that kindness to blind you from the evil that lives along side you. Evil cannot survive as long as goodness does not feed it.

And that is the Way I See It here in Jackson

K