I watched an interview of a Football player, Colin Kaepernick, today on Facebook. He was asked about the recent debate and in his answer he made reference to Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America great again.” and spoke about a conversation he had with African American friends and how America has never been that great for that specific group of people. The response was good, I thought, but the comments people made were just disturbing.
See for yourself:
I think many people fail to see how their opinions don’t matter in situations where they lack the knowledge and experience. I can not pretend to know about how something made another person feel unless one of two things occur: 1. I inherit the gift of mind reading or 2. that person tells me how they feel. And if they tell me, I can not negate their feelings. People forget about perception. True is almost nonexistent because we all have different outlooks on all aspects of life. There’s a quote by Henry David Thoreau- “It’s not what you look at that matters, It’s what you see.” It is easy to give an opinion based on your own beliefs and experiences but that does not mean that everyone feels the same.
Some people understand how empathy works. They look at things for what they are and do not try to impose their feelings on others. The world is filled with people blaming victims for what happened or is happening to them. Look at the rapist and the murderers who escape their punishment. “He was at the wrong place at the wrong time…” “She wore a short skirt so she was begging for it…” There is so much wrong with the world. Not many people want to take responsibility for their action nor do they want to stand up for those who don’t have the voice to do it for themselves.
Instead of beating other down, we should either build them up or keep our mouths closed. There is no reason the world need to hear every random thought every person has, especially if it’s negative. I grew up with the saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” I tell my kids all the time: before saying anything, think about it and if it’s something you wouldn’t want someone to say to you, don’t speak it at all. Most of these adults out there think they are invincible and aren’t mature enough to even handle the negative comments they dish out. I think that because the moral compass has been broken for so long, that they don’t even understand, logically, that their words can hurt them too.
My thought is: I am human and I make mistakes but t’s important to admit, to myself at the very least, when I am wrong and always try and be better.
We are all works in progress even if there are those who refuse progress. The world would be a better place if everyone accepted the pain of others and tried to rectify them to improve the conditions for everyone.
In the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”
Can we?
Look Within 