I was supposed to do a different kind of podcast today. Which I’ll do next week. But I felt I should do one focusing on all that is going on in our country right now.
First of all the video of George Floyd’s murder was sickening and unacceptable. But unfortunately nothing new. As Will Smith said, Racism isn’t getting worse, it’s getting filmed. I think between the pandemic, the isolation, the uncertainty, the fear, the divisiveness of the media, it was finally the perfect storm to not just read about something so shocking and evil as the murder of George Floyd and the utterly senseless and horrific video of Ahmaud Arbery a few weeks before getting murdered while out for a run in Georgia. It was finally the tipping point to not just quietly feel bad for a situation but to actually do something about it.
Say what you want about Donald Trump, love him or hate him. He has been the catalyst for people to wake up and pay attention and come back together as fellow human beings. Whether he meant to do it or not, this is the revolution. We have stopped going about our business and blindly letting other people govern over us without questioning everything. We got stagnant and complacent that, this is just the way it is.
Some people are just so far removed from the darker side of America didn’t touch them. Others lived right in the hopeless heart of it. On both sides, what can I do? Everyone said.
My eyes were opened beyond my world when we drove across country from NY to LA.
I grew up in the Hampton’s for crying out loud. Growing up we were locals so it wasn’t the glamorous side of the Hampton’s, my parents owned a landscaping business and also bartended and waitressed in the summer time to make ends meet. In the winter when business slowed my dad would deliver oil if he had to. Whatever it takes! But I still grew up on the east end of Long Island that is beautiful with hard working good people who looked out for their neighbors.
We married young and have had our share of ups and downs but I have nothing to complain about. So what do I know unless you educate me or in this case, I pop my own bubble and educate myself.
Once we left the eastern seaboard and started getting into the heart of the country I realized not some, most people lived in poverty. Or at least on the line.
All I could think was how is this the same country? How, as fellow Americans could we allow our brothers and sisters to live like this? Why are we in other countries helping everyone else but we let people here go hungry? It makes no sense.
I didn’t know what to do. It made me have a heavy heart. But I could see and understand, we all wanted the same things. It was the topic of my very first podcast. We all want our children to be safe, healthy and hopefully find some happiness and if they could find a calling to do what they love in life, well, there is nothing more to ask for. And I knew that as we passed shacks that held entire families where life looked so incredibly bleak, that those parents wanted the same thing but had no or little shot of getting it.
I understood why the same people that voted for hope and change when Obama was president would be the same people that would vote for Donald Trump. The media would have you believe that you’re either racist right or you’re a liberal left. But that’s not true. Most People just want a better life and they are desperate to find the person that is going to help them achieve that.
But what we have collectively come to realize is that it is we the people, who have to save ourselves. There is no marvel superhero that’s going to come in and save the day. It’s up to us.
Every single system is completely broken. I think it’s safe to say we have gotten so far away from what the founding father’s originally called “the American Experiment” that we have to reinvent what it means to be an American. Let’s get back to the line in the Declaration of Independence where it states,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
This isn’t someone else’s problem to figure out. This is our mess to deal with. To hold us accountable and responsible for what’s going on in the world. That’s why I started this platform; I didn’t know what I could do so I started small. I can say, hey you be you and I’ll be me and let’s respect that and notice our differences but because you don’t look like me, or believe what I believe, I can still entertain what you do look like or think about or believe and respect that. And we go from there. Stop bashing each other. Stop pointing fingers and be a positive influence on the direction we move forward in.
Peaceful protesters are getting a bad rap because around them looters are wreaking havoc and chaos and mayhem. I understand to a degree that people have reached a level of frustration that can’t be capped and with no other way to have their voices heard they resort to chaos and violence. Obviously this is not ok, but I understand how it’s happening.
But then there are so many amazing and beautiful stories that are coming out of this. Amazing police officers like the sheriff in Flint whose video went viral.
The police chief in NYC taking a knee with peaceful protesters and then telling them go home at curfew and let us deal with the looters that are ruining your neighborhood. The black man that went up to a group of police officers with a case of water. He said, I’m not mad at you, you must be thirsty, here’s water.
Look for the helpers, the good people. The ones that just want things to be better. It’s not too much to ask. And it’s up to all of us to help ourselves and help each other. Be more open-minded, put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Just be fucking nice to people. Treat people you don’t agree with with the same dignity and respect you want to be treated with.
Don’t let them divide us.
You can be you, and I can be me and we don’t have to be this way. We have to be better.
Ok, thank you.
