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People are good. They’re just ignorant.
It’s easy to buy into the divisiveness, the snarky jabs, the tribalism these days. It’s everywhere. It’s in every comment thread, on nearly every Facebook post. Walk down the street in your city, in your little community — in whatever place you call home and pay attention.
There’s a story Mr. Rogers told of his boyhood emotions—fear and uncertainty—following Robert Kennedy’s assassination:
“My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.”
It seems like each crisis in this country leads to the next. When one mass shooting ends, we mourn, but we brace ourselves for the next.
When the president says or does something outrageous — it’s the same thing all over again. We are shocked. We are angry. We are perplexed. We are bracing for tomorrow when he’ll do it all over again. But look for the helpers. They are there. I think you will find the same smiles, generosity and kindness that was there before social media turned us on each other. It’s not online — not much anyway. It’s in real life, where eyes meet each other, and hands touch and we can see and feel the way our words can lift and how they can destroy.
Most people aren’t mean. They are just ignorant.
Humans are susceptible to fear, to charisma, to words that make sense to them. They believe what they have experienced tells the whole story because we are wired to think that way. They aren’t evil. They are ignorant.
We live in a country that ranks among the worst in the world in education. And we are shocked to live among the ignorant. We live in a country where young boys are told they are only valued for as far as they can throw a football, how pretty the spin, how tricky they pitch, how easy they can snag a flyball out of the air. Yet we are surprised to find some of the most ignorant voices coming out of young men.
We must tell our boys to be scientists. Tell them to be poets. Tell them that even their ignorant thoughts matter if they lead to questions and answers and honesty and knowledge. Tell them to learn everything and to fear no borders and none who stand at them seeking sanctuary.
Tell them to read. For the love of God, read.
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Photo credit: Matt Collamer