As we gather around our tables to greet one another for Thanksgiving, whether if it is for family or you having a ‘Friendsgiving,’ we inevitably have people of opposing thoughts. Despite what many brush off as a ‘difference of politics,’most often it is a difference of morals, a lack of ingesting credible information, or simply not putting in the effort to really know and instead relying on feelings and hunches to make decisions.
Avoidance of such subjects is not okay.
I think of my grandparents, who fought in World War II, and their experiences with the Nazis in Germany. The way Hitler conducted business and how, just like where we are at in our own country currently, many good people who have good intentions — likely the majority if not most people — are stuck in a position of trying to live their daily life rather than protesting and investing in gathering in a real show of force for what they want.
Essentially, we are crippled by trying to sustain a typical daily life over what is seemingly something that will, for some, just blow over, and for others something that they may have been led to believe is good through propaganda and think things are fine.
These things will not blow over. The importance of what is happening in this world, in the country we live in, right now has real effects that can take decades to change and likely will never return to what we’ve known it as. Short term gains don’t win with this kind of scenario, so we must keep the overall, long-term desires in sight.
Now is really the deciding moment for what we want this country to be, what we value, and how we want to live.
It’s ever so important that we take the time to truly understand things and make good, conscious decisions based on actual reliable sources of data, that we take the time to talk to each other and listen as well as share our knowledge, experiences, and feelings with each other — whether or not we agree.
It’s maybe more important within those conversations that we choose to take effort in looking at what we know ourselves and question it, asking ourselves if what we are believing is actually correct and whether or not we have been led astray. Is what we think and believe a fact or an opinion?
If someone else is questioning who you are at your core or even choosing to remove themselves from your life as you are now, maybe there are things to look at closer internally. It’s possible you may have a completely different set of moral values but what seems more likely is that actual truth and a real grasp of reality just isn’t understood by one of the parties — of which, we need to be open to that being ourselves too.
I’d like to believe that most people want the general same things in life and for others.
My belief is that it is the propaganda that has been spread thick and continual in recent years but increasingly in the past months, which is easy to believe if you don’t choose to make an honest effort to know if it’s true or not.
It’s also easy to get wrapped up in emotions of what you want to believe or sounds plausible, but if you remove yourself from your feelings and start to look at things more factually and information based, things unravel quickly with propaganda.
We owe it to ourselves, our neighbors, our friends, and to any human being who isn’t trying to do harm to others to step back, put in the time, and to get this right. We have a world society and we should act like it. Other human beings aren’t aliens. To maintain our own safe haven of country that believes that, vetting does need to get done but not in the ways it has been. This isn’t vetting, it’s discrimination and I’d argue also hatred.
I, for one, would just like to return to a state where we, collectively, value all human beings equally, help the poor and less fortunate, spread out wealth, value healthcare for all regardless of their ability to afford it, trust in experts that actually know their fields well, and rely on sound information and facts as their guidance as well as having a kind and compassionate heart to guide decisions.
This is showing real gratitude, to be caring and accepting for all other humans even if they weren’t born here, and may identify differently in ways we don’t understand. Gratitude isn’t selectively kind nor allowing ignorance of truth. Gratitude fights for honesty and fairness. Gratitude is caring enough to act upon that.