The story goes that a library opened up in a
small town and an old lady showed up to check out the books.
She wandered over to the dictionaries and
started looking through them. At one
point, she picked up a large dictionary and lugged it to the head librarian and
said, rather sternly: “Sir, there are
dirty words in this book!”
He looked at her and said: “Ma’am, you were looking for them.”
After thinking about it for a moment, I turned
my attention to the dozen or so millennials I know – including my son and his
wife, my daughter and her boyfriend and their myriad of friends. None of them are at all like the millennials
described by this gal. The millennials I
know are hardworking, struggling to make ends meet, trying to make a better
world, living and dreaming and laughing and each one would open the door for my
83 year old mother.
A couple days ago, I saw a meme (below) blasting this
new “generation” of people and, once again, I saw someone looking for dirty
words. Easier to post a meme that blasts
what you think you see than actually go out and look, right?
Here’s the deal. You want to find free-loading mooching
welfare queens? You can find them. If you want to find struggling families,
trying to make ends meet, and needing some assistance to get through to the
next meager paycheck – you can find them, too.
You want to find Muslims bent on destroying
America, ready to go Jihad on all our asses?
Sure. Just turn on Fox News. You want to find many MORE Muslims who love
this country and our freedoms and just want to live and breathe and worship as
they please? You can find them.
Scary Muslims
Muslim died serving our country.
Refugees, immigrants, documented workers,
undocumented workers, liberals, conservatives, gay, straight, the list goes on
and on and on.
You want to post a story about out-of-control
black youth on a rampage? You can find
it. You want to post a story about black
youth helping in their communities, you can find that, too. What is it, in reality, are you looking for?
Are you looking for this?
Or this?
You want to post a story about out-of-control
cops profiling black people and finding systemic racism? You can find it. You want to post a story about cops working
with inner-city youth and helping out their communities? You can find it.
Are you just looking for that dirty word that
eases your conscience? Or confirms what
you think you already believe? Just
because you see some slacker smoking dope by the 7-11 dumpster, does that
inform everyone that age? Certainly
not. But, hey, it’s a microcosm of a
greater truth? Right?
A?
or B?
And our generation never did anything like
that. We didn’t have slackers. We weren’t slackers. We always held doors open. Sure.
Just yesterday I saw a posting on Facebook from
a conservative relative blasting liberals for attempting to take down a statue
of a confederate soldier. The article
basically states that liberals are trying to wipe away history. I quickly wanted to find the on-line articles
about how some conservative school districts are trying to literally re-write history
books to make slavery “not so bad” and, possibly to wipe out the history of
slavery in this country altogether. See –
if they can find dirty words, so can I!
If they can pick and choose their story to push a certain narrative, then
so can I!
Their post:
My possible post:
But to what point?
Is it to actually provide information that
might inform someone’s thinking? Or is
it to just say, basically: “Nu-uh.” I see your argument and raise you my
rebuttal! I’m more correct than you!
If I look at myself honestly, I want to voice
my opinion or my point or my statement to basically say: I’m right and you’re wrong. I’m better and you’re lesser. I’m a winner and you’re a loser.
Take the time.
Do the research. Read different
viewpoints. Don’t take holier-than-thou speeches
by 20-somethings or rants by 50-somethings as the gospel truth. Sit down with the gay, transgender, Muslim,
conservative, liberal, homeless, drug addict, divorced single mother, veteran, politician,
teenager, etc. if you really want to inform your life and what you believe. Maybe those dirty words won't seem so dirty any more.
Bottom line, if you or I look for those dirty
words, we’ll find them. But for each
dirty word we find, there are 10,000x other words that we’re missing and maybe
those words are more important than the select few.
Lots and lots of words.