Rants by Mac: Choose Kindness

Choose Kindness

When did we lose kindness? I explored this topic in 2018; could it be that long ago? The situation has not improved.

Whether it’s a social media connection, an issue at a school board meeting, a political discussion, or a Little League baseball game, have you witnessed a lot of kindness? Has tolerance taken a back seat? Aren’t we a little less kind than we were twenty, or even five, years ago?

Social media allows us to attack without leaving our keyboards. How often do you see denigrating comments when someone posts their opinion about ANYTHING? Why can’t we let our friends vent a little and then show a little support? What has changed that criticism has replaced empathy as the default when someone has a problem, and jealousy trumps happiness when something good happens to someone? What drives the need to comment and opine on their every event? Let’s support their trials and celebrate their successes. Or, just let it go. Show some support, some positivity, some class.

People post their opinions about topics that have importance for them. Those posts may generate ongoing discourse where people can discuss, debate, and defend positions. But, because it is easy to be brave in front of your computer screen, people seem more apt to attack, ridicule, insult, and bully when they can do it online.

It is sad that people can attack through a medium where no topic is off-limits, and so-called facts require no authentication.

Why are we so angry? It’s difficult to watch the news without becoming angry. And the network you choose feeds that anger on a regular basis because we don’t watch the news anymore to get the news; we watch it to reinforce the positions we already hold. News, or each network’s version of it, is broadcast 24/7, and it feeds the bias, the prejudices, the pessimism, the anger.

Walter Cronkite quit broadcasting the news in 1981. Now we get to choose between Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow, for a balanced view of the world. Good luck. That may be one reason we are so angry – we have lost the “most trusted man in America.” Who do you trust now?

But that anger is fueling aggression and is spilling over into our real lives now.

Confrontation is everywhere. Last year, while riding a bike through a local park, I noticed three teenagers skateboarding on the municipal tennis courts. Stopping to talk, I noted that their metal wheels could damage the very-expensive courts, which is why signs are posted for “tennis or pickleball only.”

When they were asked politely if they could take their boards fifty yards (literally – perhaps less) to the skateboard park that the City built, their response was predictable (confrontational), as they pulled out their phones to record our interaction? The tennis courts were just resurfaced this summer, at a cost of $72,936.

From a July 9 incident, a 12-year-old girl in Detroit is facing charges for allegedly throwing acid on an 11-year-old girl at a playground, resulting in second-degree burns on the younger girl’s back, legs, and arms.

And the 11-year-old was not even involved in the dispute that led to the attack; she was just a bystander. “This is an extremely troubling set of allegations,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement. “Instant horrible decision-making can have lifelong effects on others. There is no excuse for this.” Really, Kym? You have a gift for stating the obvious.

Consider those “lifelong effects.” This girl will have be impacted by this attack for her entire life. Shouldn’t we question why a pre-teen is bringing acid to the park? Where were Mom and Dad? I cannot wait to hear their story.

Let’s try to be kinder. It’s simply an attitude. It doesn’t take that much effort, it costs nothing, and the payback can be rewarding. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in “The Conduct of Life“ (1860),   “You can never do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”

Curt MacRae, lives in Coldwater, MI / publishes rants on rant-able topics.at this site.

All published posts are tweeted (@curtmacrae) — comments to rantsbymac@gmail.com