Turn on the news today and we are almost certain to hear and see all the issues that are dividing our country. What is happening to us? Are we really a country of us versus them or are we a country that values all? The news is exploiting so many differences that it is hard to know where to start. I could write an entire column on how our government and candidates are pulling out all the stops to divide Democrats and Republicans. Another column on how much the news is reporting stories that pit American citizens against immigrants. Yet another and another for so many more reasons. I do not want to go there today. These topics are too big.
Today I just want to ask you a few very difficult questions. I say difficult not because the questions are hard, they’re not. They are difficult because of the hot buttons they have the power to push. I pray you will read this column in the spirit I bring it to you. The spirit of togetherness. As funeral directors, cemetery managers, and aftercare providers you know firsthand how death can bring people together and how death can tear people apart.
This is why I want to ask you: What do you think when you hear “Black Lives Matter?” Are you thinking the same thing when you hear “Blue Lives Matter?” What about when you hear “All Lives Matter?”
There is no one that understands how much a life matters more than those of us who deal with death. You are experts in bringing families and communities together. This is why I am asking you to please reach out beyond your social circle to help unite our country. Reach out beyond your race and find out what your community thinks when they hear “Black Lives Matter.” Go beyond your professions and find out what your community thinks when they hear “Blue Lives Matter?” I’m also going to add one of my own: What do people think when they hear “Addicts Lives Matter.”
As a human being I do not say, Black, Blue, and Addicts lives matter more than any other only that they matter as much as my own. The question is: why are there so many populations in our country that believe they need to remind their fellow human beings that their lives matter? Full disclosure, I am a white woman who is not a police officer or an addict. I know I have no personal understanding of the problems dividing us. I never take a step thinking people do not see my life as valuable and I pray that there will be a time when everyone in our country knows their fellow human being values their life as much as their own. That is not the case today.
People are protesting, screaming, and reporting: “Please remember my life matters too!” What is our country doing wrong? In 2016 why are race, profession, and disease dividing us? What can we do to help bring our communities and our country together? I wish I could give an answer. I do not have one.
What I do know is that we will never find the answers until we all understand what the problems are. We cannot come together if we refuse to see the other side. This is why I am asking you to please reach out beyond your walls. Learn what is dividing people so that we can work together to find solutions that will bring us together as human beings. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please give me a ring at 617-980-1728, email me at Kristan@mooneytunco.com, or even better join the conversation on the Let’s Chat blog at www.nomispublications.com/blog.aspx