#YOURLIFEMATTERS.
Near and far, the world is hurting and healing. Time and time again, we see individuals and groups who feel (and that's a key word) slighted, bullied, mistreated, misrepresented, misunderstood, marginalized, undervalued, underserved, and underappreciated lash out, inflict damage beyond belief and repair, and the rest of us are left, staggered, stunned, wounded, confused, grief-stricken, and broken-hearted, to pick up the pieces. We see others unfairly targeted and then more damage inflicted by those so incensed, they feel the need to retaliate on their behalves, in their absence, and in their defense. In all these situations, we wonder what went wrong and what could possibly have been done to avoid another senseless tragedy. We look for answers. We struggle to comprehend. We simply can't understand. Yet, if we look at each of the cases or all of them together, we should be able to discern at least a few common themes.
Not long ago, these things seemed to happen with great infrequency. Once every few years maybe, and each time we were absolutely shocked and horrified. Now, they seem to happen every other day or even every day or even multiple times a day, and seem almost so commonplace that we're just at a loss, shaking our heads, numb, struggling to keep a loose grasp on reality. I use the words "seem" and "seemed" because it's hard to know if they're genuinely happening more often, if they've been happening this often all along and we've just been shielded from them, if our access to and obsession with media and social media makes the epidemic feel greater than it actually is, or some combination of the above.
And, it seems, we all want the same things but there's little consensus on how to get there. Freedom. Respect. Truth. Equality. Dignity. Transparency. Acceptance. Understanding. A seat at the table. Equal share of voice. To be seen. To be heard. To be trusted. To be loved. To be popular. To be considered. To be valued or feel just as valued as any other.
The shouting matches that take place online and off, face-to-face and from a distance, are not helping, rather uncovering never-fully-healed wounds, deepening and widening already cavernous divides.
I'm not sure how we arrived at this place and I'm not sure how we proceed. But I do believe each of us plays a role and empathy is a major part of it. When people hurt and they express their pain and those expressions are dismissed, downplayed, and ignored, or if those hurting are left feeling that way (there's that word again), the pain doesn't go away. It actually probably hurts even more, but on a different level. And then they feel the need to do whatever it takes to get their audience (even just one person) to hear them, to see them, to acknowledge them, to understand them. Feeling they have no choice but to inflict pain of their own and that—as we all know too well—often leads to more violence and devastation, and that’s never okay. It's an awful, painful cycle. Most of us can find ways to communicate and work through our differences peacefully, rationally, amicably. But there are an extreme few among us all whose voices unfortunately resonate the loudest and whose actions don't speak for any of us. None of us, however, starts off that extreme. With the help of society, we end up there over time.
In order to reverse the trend and break the cycle, we need to get out ahead of it. Rather than waiting for things to escalate and come to a head, we need to acknowledge people’s—every last person’s—worth first, without a prompt or a reason or as a condescending pat on the head to make the issue quickly and quietly go away.
Deep down, we all know it to be true that every life matters, yet we sometimes can't help but feel otherwise. Everybody needs to know, and there's no harm in telling them. The lovely and talented Dora Santiagohelped create this poster in an effort to spread peace and love. We began working on it before recent events in Nice and, more recently, the attack on police in Baton Rouge. It seems that people from all walks of life are beginning to rally, and that's a positive sign. Hopefully, we can all play some small or large part in restoring faith and hope, and ultimately creating the peaceful world in which we want to live. Thank you, Dora.
