   Last night on the news, I watched a middle-aged black man weep as he surveyed the ruin of a business he’d spent years building that had been decimated during the riots in Minneapolis. As he tried to tearfully describe what had happened to the reporter, looters actually came back into his business, oblivious to the reporter and his cameraman, and tried to walk off with the man’s safe. The man chased them off. This distraught man was justifiably upset that his business had been destroyed. The last thing he said before the looters tried to take his safe was, “I already had to close for three months because of the virus and lost all that income. I’m not sure if I will be able to come back from this.”
   I understand protest. I applaud people who protest to inspire positive change. But where I draw the line is vandalism and violence. Ghandi understood that peaceful protest got the message across more effectively than violence or anger. Martin Luther King understood peaceful protest was a better way to express grievances. Particularly in the face of rampant ignorance. Striking out violently, destroying property or causing physical harm doesn’t seem to produce the desired result.
   People stop listening when words are yelled or in anger. As children, when your parents yelled at you for something you’d done wrong, you tuned them out. You stopped listening. As a spouse, when you argue, as spouses sometimes do, if you raise your voices, the argument escalates. Things get said neither person wants to hear or say. The same is true in school settings, at work, anywhere that arguments can arise and escalate. Calm speaking voices get a point across more precisely than screaming in rage.
   I’ve never understood looting. Or violent reprisal. Or vandalism, especially against public property/buildings. Who do you imagine pays to repair, replace or rebuild public properties? You do, the tax-payer. They don’t start Go Fund Me pages. Vandalizing private property or businesses only hurts the person(s) who own the business. In this horrible time of Covid19, when persons have had to shut down their businesses, have lost income and are struggling just to survive, why hurt them even further? What does this have to do with the senseless loss of George Floyd?
   When you make yourself part of a mob—not a peaceful protest—your message is lost in the anger and violence of the horde around you. Those you are trying to influence will tune you out. The fear you incite with your anger will cause the very persons you want to hear your voice and understand your point of view to be too busy trying to put out the figurative and literal fires your violence inspires. Your message will be lost.
   If you really want to honor George Floyd, and far too many others, live a different life. See the other person’s point of view. Make a positive impact in your community, in your family. Reach out and help in any way you can. Think before you act or speak. And speak calmly with forethought. Make the Golden Rule the way you live your life. Violence, for the sake of violence, will Never be the answer to any problem.
Soosey’s Ruminations 