Sharing an article published in Civil Beat by one of Conflict Resolution Alliance members, Tom DiGrazia…
We are now into September and the COVID-19 virus has claimed the lives of around 190,000 U.S. citizens and has currently infected over 6 million of our people with no end in sight.
COVID has sharpened our focus on how collectively unhealthy we Americans are. The rampant incidence in America of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dietary abuses and lack of exercise and the accompanying related illnesses among us have been negatively hijacked by COVID-19.
This hijacking has been created and worsened by design, ignorance and omissions in our nation’s predominant lifestyle in 21st-century America. This lifestyle of ill health and the adverse preexisting health conditions it manifests have made us extremely susceptible to this contagion.
Our present federal government has also stripped away our democratic veneer. Our politics — particularly on the national level — have become extremely factionalized.
For instance the politically metaphoric concept of Red and Blue states, parties, groups and individuals are more often now the perspective lenses through which many Americans observe the world. This fragmented perspective — us versus them, the “others” — includes traditional and obvious issues such as race, religion, immigration, and mass proliferation of guns.
Yet this cultural divide now embraces fear-based COVID-related concerns. These concerns currently include wearing masks, social responsibility for others, and whether children go to school or workers return to work.
This us versus them tribalism is reflected in our social media. Every human act, foible, error, statement or tendency — real, imagined or perceived — has become subject to instant social media support or scorn and mockery.
The Cyber Jury
Increasingly, the cyber jury of our peers either expresses fanatic agreement or disagreement with the views emerging over the Internet or on Twitter; you are either woke or an ignorant fool, thumbs either condemn or applaud you.
This invisible jury of critics — perhaps with unresolved personal issues — most often having little or no physical, intellectual or prior historical background in the matter at hand, needs to autocorrect itself so as not to be complicit in making or breaking careers, reputations and lives, or diminishing vigorous yet respectful democratic dialogue among competing perspectives.
All Americans need to understand our communal 99.9% human DNA similarities, as well as our spiritual connection to each other as we spin together through a very lonely universe on a very environmentally fragile planet.
We need to hone our nonviolent peacemaking skills and mindfully consider the viewpoints of others. We do not need more cyber jurists. We do need more activated peace builders. We need to realize our collective social failure to be nonjudgmental and to dialogue with those of differing perspectives.
Please go to https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/09/among-all-the-covid-negatives-positive-wisdom-can-emerge/ to read the full article.
