I would love for a day (longer would be nice), that Facebook be filled with positivity- whatever that means to you- and void of vitriol: the back-biting, finger-pointing partisanship that tends to clog up these social media sites. No rants about cups, no memes taking down a person or groups people, no matter what side any of us are on. After the awful events in #Paris last night, I want to be on the #HUMAN side. That's something we should be able to get behind. And in that way- albeit a small way- we can all be #HELPERS. Everyone affected by last night's tragedy needs now to heal, and if all of us can do small things to help that happen- then at least for a while we can all be on the same side. HAPPY Saturday, Facebook.
The morning after the attacks in Paris (and therefore a couple days after the much less publicized Beirut bombings)- I posted the above message to my Facebook account, with a link to a video of Mr. Rogers telling his "look for the helpers" story.
I then tried to follow my advice, and avoided posting politically or anything that could be considered negative (outside of maybe knocking a sports team or two- but no "real life" negativity). What I should have done was stayed away from social media. Because I kept seeing the same old crap- blame game finger-pointing, sometimes hateful posts under the guise of patriotism or intellectual elite-ism. It took a good deal of will power not to comment- not to engage.
Well, just two days later, I found myself posting an article about a divisive issue, with my commentary on the issue tagged on top. I had made it a bit more than 48 hours before jumping back in partisan posting game. Having had my earlier plea land deafly on many in my circle, and reflecting on what I said- I demurred and went back and deleted my post.
And then I immediately began thinking about the line between a negative post, and standing up for what I believe. Of speaking out against hate, and challenging that ideology. And realizing that while it may be divisive, it may indeed be partisan, it might not be necessarily negative. Confrontational, perhaps though. And that's really what my plea was- not to be at or against each other, and thereby in absence of partisanship, we could all pretend for a little bit that we were all in this together. But I suppose that's what it is- pretend. Kumbaya bullshit and a pipe dream.
Or is it? If we can't be united in love, can we not find common ground in our hatred? We all deplore these acts of terror and the individuals carrying them out- why get bogged down in semantics? Of who said what and when? Let's all hold hands and denounce terrorism! Who's with me? A hate-in for peace!!
But hatred is blinding. Hatred causes blanket statements and jumps to conclusions without benefit of facts and logic. Well, dammit- there goes common ground!
As for me? I'm jumping back in the pool. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines while things I know are true get trampled on. But I am going to strive to rise above the ugliness. To voice my opinion without tearing others down. I don't know if I'm strong enough to do that- it can be so tempting and satisfying to attack those in opposition to us- but I'm not staying silent.
You see, I too hate. I hate injustice. I hate ignorance. And I'm not ready to drop it all and hug it out with people that spread those messages. Kumbaya will have wait, I guess.