I’m mad, and I’m not going to take it anymore. This is my line in the sand.
Why should we accept that former basic rules of civil society are now abolished?
Why are kindness, common sense, and realism no longer considered relevant?
Why is it tolerable that because we have major issues (economic, climate, security, etc.), it is acceptable to no longer treat people with basic respect?
Why are adults no longer expected to act like adults, and to set examples children can look up to?
Why do TV ratings justify anything?
History provided endless examples of periods when people endured far worse, yet we justify current behaviors by frustration, anger, and fear.
What possible good can come from discarding the one principle that has best guided humanity – the Golden Rule.
Without this, we can never make our country great again.
Bryan Matthews
Chestertown
joe diamond says
Everything is all right. You have been watching too much television. Newspaper headlines are designed to sell newspapers but are just as bad as television. You have scared yourself.
joe diamond says
You could have been a little more specific… perhaps mentioning that the Golden Rule is not a mandate to be nice. It is not an instruction to set a good example for children. What is rarely stressed is that the last part is the central meaning. It IS a prohibition against revenge. Even though we get mad as hell we are instructed not to draw a line in the sand…not shoot back… We are nice, we are civil and yet bad things happen to us. We want revenge!
SO…. we do unto others as we would have them do unto us….when others to hateful things unto us we do not get mad as hell. We do not draw a line in the sand. What ever has been done to us that is mean, stupid or hurtful is to be ignored. It is at that point we are to disconnect the injury and revenge cycle.
Liz Smith says
Bryan,
I could not agree more ! We are seeing the death of civility and have moved into a time where social media makes it all too possible to unleash the vitriol and push SEND before we’ve even given the matter any real thought. Sadly, it all begins at home. It is an insidious disease and has even made it’s way to the top of our national food chain. Just look at the joke that has become the race for President ! We could be doomed .
Lynn Wait says
Bryan, I hear your father speaking! I miss him.