An Overly Simple Look at the Rippling Effects of the Current Violence

Who (or what) is to blame? The people who killed cops? The protesters who scared people? The cops who killed people? The vitriolic rhetoric of the politicians? Social media that propagates hatred rapidly and often falsely? The changes in the world that frighten people?

Did it begin in the battle for civil rights that simultaneously gave us Martin Luther King Jr., George Wallace, Lyndon Johnson, and Malcolm X? (Which was really a continuation of a Civil War that was devastating to more people than any event in our history as a country.)

Could it be the fault of the founders of a country who established some noble ideals but did so in a terribly flawed design that was barely consummated? (Note: No attempt is made to reflect the effects of the failings of this noble experiment on women, Native Americans, animal life, or even nature itself.) Or was it the people who fled the Old World to escape tyranny and lack of opportunity, and brought with them the practices of slavery? Should we hold to account the leaders of the Old World, who through their violations, drove people to this New World?

Who created racial and ethnic enmity in the first place?

Can we see that placing blame is a fool’s game? Is it not clear that we have a collective problem, that together we are the creators of culture? Dare we look and see that that which we do not resolve within ourselves will be propagated through us, knowingly or unknowingly?

Can we accept that responsibility? Seeing it to be in every form of blindness, insensitivity, and defensiveness which contributes to the ripple effects through our action or inaction?

Seeing True™

Once upon a time hatred and violence appeared in the world. Each expression of it created a ripple effect that extended its reach. As long as those effects remain unresolved within any of us, they will somehow come to effect all of us.

If you wish to find fault, first look within. If you seek a solution, first look within.

First look within.

It is only there that the roots of violence can be dissolved. Only then can we be released. Finally, we can act to good purpose.