Good morning everyone! I just literally woke up and having first cup of coffee of the morning.
After about a month of having my conscience tugging at me about a perspective I wanted to communicate, and the fear that stating them would get me shunned in some way, I started posting some excerpts from news articles. This got me defollowed on FaceBook by a good friend (which apparently was actually a defriend since he signed the letter “best of luck to you.”)
Later that night another friend called me out of the blue (incidental play in words, by the way). And then the conversation got extremely heated.
Here are some of the points she was making:
My ‘viewpoints’ seemed to be ‘coming out of nowhere,’ they were ‘unsubstantiated,’ I was ‘ill-informed,’ I ‘shouldn’t be forwarding articles about the topic when I wasn’t at the event…’ ok, so you may think I was saying something quite scandalous, quite radical. But no… here is all I was saying: I had concerns for the rioting and looting, and the toll it is taking on the residents of neighborhoods where it is continuing. I’ve noticed that ‘rioting and looting’ has become a very charged phrase, and it would seem if you are a proper Democrat, it is no longer politically correct to say you object to rioting and looting. Inversely, it is also politically incorrect to say that any ongoing protest has been anything other than ‘mostly peaceful.’ But if the viewpoint is that rioting and looting is understandable, then why also is mainstream left media keep hammering home the message that it is not happening, when anyone with eyes, and the ability to read obituaries can see it is indeed happening. I am so confused and troubled… I think I am expected to stay in line with the false narrative, but when I start seeing reports of people getting killed during various protests, at the hands of rioters and looters, it is getting more difficult to deny this truth. My main mission is to speak out against brutality, and two months ago, I showed up to protest police brutality, now I am protesting the brutality of rioting and looting, especially when I am seeing multiple reports confirming devastating property damage to small businesses, and worse, deaths at the hands of rioters and looters…this does not seem to help the cause of peaceful protests if people are not safe. It is really shaking me up that this has become a ‘conservative viewpoint.’ Shouldn’t all Americans be objecting to brutality, however it is appearing?
Tales from the Little Shed 