this seems to be at the heart of many social media posts and I think we need to really talk about it . . .

THROWING STONES AT PEOPLE is effective at keeping our attention off of important issues and out of the discussions of those issues = a great distraction technique.

• Pointing out flaws in others,
• creating stories woven into conspiracy theories, and
• stirring up negative emotions

keeps us from talking about:

ISSUES . . . here are a couple of issues that have been seriously impacted by dismantling our infrastructure:

• the AIR we breathe
& the WATER we drink
rolling back protections requiring corporations to decrease their pollution of our air and water increases the profits of corporations and shareholders AND increases our health problems and, in the long-term, impacts our survival

• education
the undermining of our public education system means increased profits for private schools and severely cripples available education for those unable to afford tuition taking us closer to a time in our early history when it was illegal to teach those considered “lower” class.

We need to resist this all too human tendency to point out flaws in others (and we all have flaws) and focus on issues that can impact our survival as well as the survival of our world.

Most of us did not live through the “Dust Bowl” time (1930s), but we could learn some lessons from it. There were a variety of causes: overgrazing, overplowing, severe drought, high heat and winds, grasshoppers and jackrabbits—some were from ignorance of good farming techniques, some were motivated by greed and some areas are still suffering from the impact of that time period.

Important lessons from the Dust Bowl: we need to protect our natural resources, recognize that greed-driven profits can result in destruction of ourselves (thousands of people died). We need to closely examine our use and care of our world not allowing greed/profits to be the determining factor in our choices, not allowing selfishness to blind us to all the “costs” of our choices.

Let’s stop throwing stones at people and start looking at issues and accept responsibility for our choices and their impacts and maybe take a closer look at our own motives!

Let’s WORK TOGETHER on ISSUES,
not on the destruction of those with whom we disagree!