Once again, America is fighting among itself. Will we ever learn that all lives matter and we need to learn to love our neighbor? Will we ever realize we are all different and that difference is exactly what makes us Americans?
Our country seems to be arguing about which lives matter. Every life matters. Black lives matter. Brown lives matter. LGBT lives matter. Women matter. Men matter. Police matter. Americans matter.
All lives matter. We are all the same; from the same mold.
We need to stop arguing about who matters and who is more repressed and start loving each other. The enemy is not your neighbor. Love thy neighbor. No matter the color of skin, the gender, the nationality or who they chose to love.
When people decide that it is ok to gun down their neighbor or to use a car to do the dirty work, that is when the peaceful movement gets a bad rep and becomes associated with violence.
I don’t understand the point? The only thing they prove is their ignorance and their hate.
An eye for an eye does not produce peace or forgiveness. Or understanding and support. We need to heal this country, every part of it, and not divide it. Unite not divide.
How do we stop violence against groups in America?
Our nation needs to begin a conversation that will help heal our country, heal each other and stop the violence against each other and the very people who vow to keep us safe as a daily routine.
The national conversation began last year, I thought, with the police shootings in Dallas during a peaceful rally. It needs to continue.
It starts with you and me. It begins with teaching your children that men and women–no matter the race, skin color or where they are from, no matter the person they chose to love–every one deserves respect and love and equality. All lives matter.
Talking about this and saying all the right positive words is a beginning–not a solution– but a start.
We need to say all the positive words. Love, grace, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, understanding, to all people, no matter who they are or what they have done to us.
And while these words are a start, we need a continuation or all the social-ills will only escalate.
I want the stupidity to end. The violence. The hate. I want peace, understanding and love. I want people to look at each other and see their brother and sister–not the enemy.
I want the stupidity to end. The violence. The hate. I want peace, understanding and love. I want people to look at each other and see their brother and sister--not the enemy. Click To Tweet
Whether you call them inherent rights, natural rights or God-given rights, we as a society, no matter your background, net-worth, society or culture, have them. Ever since the 1776 Declaration of Independence, these rights are called unalienable rights.
It is our inherent right, or the means by which we decide justice, fair entitlement and peaceful conflict resolution, to live in a free society. Free society comes with rules and laws. We all have inherent rights, but we must obey the laws and respect those that govern them.
After the Dallas police shootings in Dallas, last July, Hillary Clinton said, “[There is] too much violence and hate in our country.”
Yes, but historically, there always has been. There has always been stupid, violent people.
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Mother Teresa spoke wise words when she said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across waters to create many ripples.”
All the little ripples could make a change. Imagine if we all thought this way and started throwing stones-the right way–the positive way. If everyone would try to make a positive change, cause a ripple, in a positive way, we could make a really large ripple of change in this world we all share.
Sometimes you just have to decide that you want to be the change. We, as Americans, need to decide to go through life being the encourager-not the persecutor.
“Be the encourager–not the persecutor!”
Last year, one man in Dallas started a ripple and it’s reached around the world with a poster board and a Sharpie. Chris Bailey drove downtown, to the crime scene, after the police shootings in Dallas, armed with his poster board that read, “EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY”. He describes on his website that he was nervous about getting out of his car with his sign; he was compelled to do it.
Chris Bailey with his now famous sign
He walked around downtown for two and a half hours, receiving hugs, fist bumps, thumbs up, waves, and lots of head nods. With excitement he wrote about getting zero negative responses. People took pictures of him and pictures with him. The Associated Press picked up one of those pictures and Bailey and his sign went viral. The news sources at the crime scene interviewed him and his story and picture has been in the newspapers in Houston, DC, and Spain. He and his sign have been on local news in Texas cities, as well as in Louisiana and even as far away as Norway.
This simple message is a positive ripple.
Bailey was on a street corner, with his famous sign, during the interview. He expressed, “A lot of people don’t get out and do something because they feel they won’t make a change. I am just one guy and I have affected over 57,000 people. Do something simple. Just do SOMETHING.”
Then he added, “Show somebody that you love them.”
Bailey started a Facebook page that now has over 57,000 members that is spreading love and erasing hate. Bailey’s website is selling t-shirts, hoodies, stickers and other items with the original, scribbled out, positive message on it: “EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY”
In an interview with Bailey last year he told me more of his story. Bailey said he lives by the Golden Rule.
When I asked Bailey, a foundation repair salesman, what the biggest positive that he has experienced out of this signage, he responded with, “My change of attitude. I’ve become a nicer guy, towards my family and my job. I made a 180 degree turn-around in less than a week. It is me that has changed.”
That was last year. Baily continues to go to the streets with his sign. He continues to make an impact.
Amplify this message. Pay it forward. Show people who all lives matter.
This is our wake-up call. Again. How many do we need? We need to stop snoozing! We need to wake up and stop the stupid, senseless violence all in the name of justice. Like Bailey, show someone you care; show someone you love them. Everybody deserves love from everybody.
Be too busy to hate.
Be too busy to hate. #bethechange #dedradaviswrites Click To Tweet
I hope for you the passion to love your neighbor and to spread love not hate. Do it in little ways. Change the way you think and speak. Make a change. Be the change. Be love.
love and blessings (and peace)~dd
*I wrote this blog post last year, first as an editorial for The Hometown News, a small Waco paper I wrote for. I am publishing this blog post again, with updates, because this conversation needs to continue. All lives matter. Read the original blog post here.
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