They say ignorance is bliss, meaning, if you don’t know something, the more likely you are to keep doing it. Every day when turning on the local news network, we are almost immune to hearing about another recent shooting, a family in tears over their loss of a loved one, how no one saw it coming, but we shouldn’t be. These things shouldn’t be the norm, and we shouldn’t be normalized to hearing these things happen. We all have a part to play in protecting each other from useless violence, so let’s start by recognizing what it is that we may be participating in now, that could ignite destruction inside of someone.
- Criticism
No one likes criticism, as it is often times unneeded, judgmental, and you can probably live your life without it. But it could also put on extra weight emotionally onto a person, that could have been carrying an already overloaded and weary back.
- Labeling
What is said about a person often times sticks with them whether realized or not. According to Psychology Today, “the more a person believes that personality can change, the less affected they are about a possible certain trait that they don’t like.” Everyone deserves a chance to define for themselves who they are, or who they want to be.
- Being dismissive toward people
Your time and listening ears could be what is giving needed hope to that person. How many times have we heard that nobody would have guess that it would be him/her to do this? Sometimes it takes you being able to give a little bit of your time to a person in need of a listening ear to make all the difference. I personally couldn’t be less tired of all this senseless violence that could have been avoided if someone would have just stopped and listened or had chosen not to be passive towards the person. Let’s do our parts in protecting our communities, and our loved ones, by pushing away ignorance, and paying attention to how we treat those that we come in contact with.