Marvin said What's Going On America...

Facebook family- Checking my FB every morning has become extremely sad for me. I see the hatred of people that I'm friends with. I see them bash one another's political party or social values. Now, since I grew up in a very conservative town and have many of those values in my blood, I understand the impulse to share these ideas. I also definitely understand and believe in the right to free speech and the sharing of ideas. But that being said, the hatred that I see is overwhelmingly raw and sad. It's as if the impersonal medium of social media has given us unspoken permission to cast aside our compassion, empathy, and the same ability to filter our thoughts that we use in person-to-person interactions on a daily basis.

This county was founded based on the belief that it would be a place where people of different religions, cultures, races, economic status, etc. could find a home where they would feel safe and accepted. I think that as Americans, we would like to believe that we uphold those ideals. However, on a regular basis I am disappointed to see friends feel so comfortable sharing their hatred in posts on race, politics, sexual identity... We have found so many sources of divisiveness and conflict, but when we are challenged as a nation, we come together and kick ass! What I cannot understand is why we need the challenge in order to come together!

In the coming year there will be another Presidential election and we will end up with a new leader. During the campaign there will undoubtedly be mud thrown and hate spewed from all angles, and not everyone will be happy once we have our new president. But regardless of our party or affiliation in politics or our stances on social issues, we need to decide to use our voices as tools to find common ground, and to have discussions meant to solve problems instead of fueling them.