Like everyone else, I've had bad days. Hell, bad days have spanned into weeks, into rough periods in life that we all trod through. You don't want to hear about that, though; after all, everyone's got their own problems, and we all deal with them in our own way. Don't worry, this won't be all about me, and, in fact, this deals more about us all as a collective.
Maybe it's me, but coming into the new year hasn't exactly been a smooth transition, and the media has carried over a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of last year's problems into today. When December came to a close, the #MeToo movement was exposing more and more sexual predators at large every day. It was disheartening. President Trump (once again) made controversial comments, this time about "shithole countries", but hey, I don't think we were all eating Tide pods yet so.....win?
The fact remains that with all the negative press, all the instant flow of news streaming to our mobile devices mean that we are immediately notified the second something happens. The situation in Puerto Rico is horrific, and we are relayed every facet of their lives.
Survivors of sexual assault speak out, relating tales of heinous crimes, and the cable TV captures every moment of it. No matter the event, the whole world stands watching, and that, at least for me, can be emotionally draining after a time.
Imagine you're watching "Criminal Minds". You enjoy the intrigue, the delving into dark, twisted minds and episodes fraught with danger and thrills, but after a while, the weight of the show bears down on you, and for me, I have to eventually take a break from all the somber material. Unfortunately, though I am massively grateful these stories are being told, the depressing atmosphere the press pushes onto the public can be suffocating.
So now here comes the positive twist on the story, because there is a light at the end of the tunnel: there is good to take away from all this. The upside to everything I've just said is that we now know.
Take President Trump again, with his near-incessant onslaught of rhetoric riling up the masses. Personal opinions aside, his words and action(in some cases, inaction) have spurred those holding white supremacist belief that it is now acceptable to, say, hold a white power rally while marching with tiki torches. That's the bad.
The good, is that with such overtly racist behaviors out in the open, we can now clearly see where our problems as a society lie and more easily identify and address the issues. For survivors of sexual assault, retelling their story can be traumatic, and can be depressing for more empathetic viewers as the list of named offenders grows on, but it allows for a more public stance to be taken on sexual assaults in America.
For every critical aspect of society analyzed and exposed, there is a chance for all of us to improve, and to be better versions of ourselves tomorrow than we ever were yesterday. True, we all have bad days, and failures, but failure is just an opportunity to begin again.
