by AllSquare
Generation X people will recognize the reference to the old No Doubt song. So will many others.
It’s basically a tune about how that sometimes we have to just stop talking and let things ride. We cannot let them go, because they are present even without our clinging and explaining, defending and accusing, attacking.
But they are still there.
It’s about Renee Nicole Good. My roommate and I made a subtle, but mutually understood agreement not to even bring up the topic with each other. You see, we’ve been getting along very well, in spite of the fact that he is very conservative and very much from Texas and not shy about it. He watches lots of online content about how that people need to cooperate with the police at all times, or else they deserve whatever they get.
“Say her name.” I know. And I do. Renee Nicole Good. I’ve got my social media content where I have excoriated her attacker, Donald John Trump and many others for failing to protect her, no matter who she was or what she was into.
But I go to a Christian church where the pastor is incredibly talented at letting us know we need to love our neighbor. So, I am doing my best to be like Jesus, even though he is not my lord and savior or anything like that.
I am not up to fighting with my friend over the way things ought to be. And I don’t like to go number two where I eat, so to speak. A conversation where we throw each other under the bus for the sins of other people has no place in our friendship. And we already decided not to even go there.
We each have our own way of fighting for what we believe in. But we share a home and we need each one to have peace and civility here. So national news stories where our side scores points or loses points are off limits as topics of discussion.
Am I wrong?
Do I need to get up in my roommate’s face and scream at him about his vote until something bad happens here in our home?
Hardly.
I wish I could bring Renee Good back, but attacking my friends and family in an expletive-filled flurry of angry and hateful rhetoric is not the way to remember our fallen heroes.
Isn’t civility what we want? We can have it. There are other ways to change hearts and minds. And we need to let history run its course. It’s too dangerous to fight about politics in the home you live in. Go ahead and take to the streets. Make signs. Call Congress. Make videos for social media. Blog like I am doing now.
But make your home a happy home. It’s the place you lay your head at night. You need your strength for this fight and you don’t need to make enemies who are always only several feet away.
This is really about a battle between good and evil that is going to last for all of human history.
You cannot win it once and for all by taking your anger out on the people who help put a roof over your head.
Pick your battles and choose wisely.
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