It is easy to stay in our own cocoons, itās warm and feels niceĀ Ā but to blossom into a butterfly of human understanding and empathy, we have to leave these shells that we have created.Ā
With the way our cities are built, you can live your whole life in Helotes, Stone Oak, Alamo Ranch, or any of our suburbs or higher end areas and never really see true poverty, homeless people, or struggle other than the 10 car wait at Shipleys. This is of course relative, because it is getting hard for the struggling middle class but most of us, go to bed full, have clothes and although we arenāt driving Mercedes, we have vehicles that work.Ā
This creates a problem because it is almost impossible to put yourself in someone elseās shoes if you have never seen their shoes. It is easier to support the side you see when you have never experienced the other.
It is easy to support a ban on feeding the homelessā when you have never dealt with the homeless. I mean it makes a little selfish sense, you are supporting homelessness by feeding them and they create trash. If you actually went out and interacted with homeless people, you will meet some bad apples, but not every person that is homeless wants to live on the streets and create trash. And if we are worrying about job creation, there you go, pay some homeless people to clean up the city, this will encourage some type of stability and clean up downtown.Ā
Secondly,
We have all heard the whole, āpull your boot straps, raise yourself up, go live the American dreamā lingo. Although this is used to encourage people, it has also created this idea that, every person in our society has the opportunity to become a white-picket fence home owner. This leads to ideas that the poor are poor because they donāt work hard enough, they are lazy and donāt want it bad it enough. If we spent a little time with those who are less fortunate than us, we will realize that this is not true at all. We are products of our environments, starting from our homes and up.Ā
Action items:Ā
Get out of your bubble and get to know someone who did not grow up in a shell like your own.Ā
I truly believe that empathy can cure hate, it is easy to hate/dislike or have viewpoints on something you do not know or have never experienced. The words āeveryā and āallā can never be used when exploring the many different lives of those around us.
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
turnnoffyourmind
blakekathryn
