Imagine Minding Your Business

I want you to close your eyes or better yet, get into an imaginative space (you can't close your eyes and read). Let's go on a journey of a regular day. Ready?

You wake up in the morning and do your morning routine. Take a shower, brush your teeth, get dressed and read the paper. (Not a typical morning anymore, most check their phone but stay with me.) You leave out for work, let's say you live close and choose to walk. As you're walking down the block you see two guys outside talking.

You nod your head and keep walking. You want to make it to work on time. On your path you see a couple holding hands in front of you. Smile at the thought of you one day finding someone who will walk hand in hand with you. You continue on your walk to work.

You get to the office and it's a man standing outside waiting for someone inside. You nod your head and continue walking. When you get inside, you see someone leave out and go walk up to that young man and hug him.

When you get on the elevator there is a woman dressed nicely. You tell her she looks nice and get off on your floor. You have made it to your desk on time.

Now. Imagine the people you saw along your way as people of color or a member of the LGBTQ community. Can you do the same thing? Yes, you can. It's called minding your own business. None of these people in this story was a threat to you. They were doing what was on their list of things to do today.

The problem lately has been that people have forgotten how to put themselves in someone else's shoes. People have started calling the police on people doing the smallest things. From having a barbecue, standing outside a building, walking hand in hand with their partner and going to a swimming pool. And here lately for looking at them "suspiciously" (insert eye-roll emoji).

The police have a job to do and it's not babysitting your feelings. If you see something illegal going on, like someone robbing a store, someone getting robbed, or beat on. Then you call the police. But calling because you feel uncomfortable is not qualified as an emergency. I believe that calling the police for false accusations is a waste of police time. They need to start charging people for it.

People also are assaulting people for doing what makes them happy. Why does who someones sleep with or choose to love affect your life? In my Kevin Hart voice, 'I'll wait'. It doesn't. Let people love who they love, and live life how they want to. The world would be better if we mind our own damn business.