The latest news of the events in Dallas have been splattered all over the news for almost a week now. Beginning last Thursday with the sniper shooting of Dallas police officers and continuing through Saturday when bomb threats were made against the Dallas Police Department, strife and controversy has covered the nation through it all.
Through all of this, there is one thing that we all of us are missing.
WE NEED TO STOP TAKING SIDES.
I cannot stress how important this is, so very important. It seems as if we all lose track of the skinny line between having different opinions and forcing them down each others throats. We don't understand how quickly our words make an impact through the use of traditional or innovative language.You have seen both profusely in the media lately, traditional through the expressions of ideas of people's beliefs and innovative through the use of developed hashtags such as #backtheblue and #alllivesmatter.
Have you noticed? The two most common hashtags you see take opposing viewpoints, and they're all over the media. If you're a fellow Facebooker, you've seen the page long rants followed by one of these hashtags.
Ever since our origin, we take sides so easily. Have you not seen what sides do to our world though? They start wars, political parties, arguments, acts of terrorism, horrible prejudices, and more. This brings back up our distorted vision of that fine line between healthy differences and differences so large that they cause mass issues.
Our attempts to fix this issue have just led us in a spiraling pitfall as we instead fall further into our sides rather than join together and work to create a better place. We find our sides comforting and a place we've been before. We understand our side, but we don't take the time to consider the other side, to understand it, to consider its validity. We cannot heal without stepping out of this comfort zone that we've fallen into and treading into a time of restoration as we work together, no prejudices, no sides, no hate.
To this end, I have a challenge for you. Share this with two people that inspire you to step out of your sided comfort zone and get to work healing the world! Spread healing and consideration to everyone you see for a day or a week, however long you want. You don't understand how much your voice matters, how far it can go before dying out. Let's start out healing Dallas' hurting heart and keep moving outwards, touching every city in our wake.
YOU HAVE A VOICE. USE IT. #nomoresides
