justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

Can We All Get Along?

Those words ring especially true at this time when we have another uptick in attacks on innocent civilians. We’re experiencing these attacks on a global scale, while individual acts of terror are occurring with regularity in homes, businesses, and neighborhoods across our land.

“Can we all get along?”

I know that may be simplistic. There are a multitude of reasons why one group may not want to, or be able to, “get along.” Regrettably, I feel that one’s religious beliefs are at the root of all too many feelings of persecution, discrimination, or the need to attack and take revenge.

I remember clearly when Rodney King, a victim of police brutality and a jury system seen at its worst, made that statement in the hopes of quieting down the riots that were taking place in many parts of our country – civil disobedience supposedly in response to the perceived injustice experienced by Rodney King himself.

At that time, I was living in Pasadena, California. The violence in the streets of Los Angeles spilled over into surrounding communities. It had a direct impact on the lives of the youth with whom I was working in the YMCA.

I remember spending many hours trying to work through the feelings of “unfairness” in the minds of the teenagers in my community, searching for logical answers… answers that never included “getting back” at the individuals and institutions who were seen as the perpetrators of justice gone bad.

Many years have passed since the Rodney King incident, but nothing much feels different these days. I ask myself, “What have we learned from all that occurred?”

“Can we all get along?”