I don\u2019t generally watch a lot of TV, but I do try to catch the news for a few minutes each evening before dinner.\u00a0 Last night I was watching the news on NBC when I saw a story about a family whose vehicle got caught in a flash flood down in Texas.\u00a0 While flash floods aren\u2019t uncommon in parts of Texas this time of year, the story caught my eye because of the way \u00a0those who witnessed it reacted.\u00a0 A family of 4 was in a SUV and needed rescuing, the mother and father were able to get to safety without much issue, but the two small children in the back seat were going down with the car and would drown without the help of good Samaritans.\u00a0 What I witnessed was a group of men, from very different backgrounds and races dive into the water to save those two children, without regard for their own safety.\u00a0 There may have been others, but of the three men that I saw saving those kids, one was Black, one Hispanic and one Caucasian.\u00a0 They were able to pull the two kids out, give them CPR, and save their lives.\u00a0 While giving CPR, not one person suggested that any of these men should not be providing life saving techniques to those two kids.\u00a0 While watching that segment, I couldn\u2019t help but think that this is the America that I was born and raised into, but I also wondered what has happened to my country.<\/p>\n
This is not an article about what a mean and hateful America we sometimes live in, it is about what a great and loving country we are.\u00a0 You see, when the chips are down, I am convinced that Americans don\u2019t really care about skin color or religion when your life a needs saving, no one ask what political party you belong to, or where you\u2019re from.\u00a0 To the contrary, in America when we see someone in distress, our natural instinct is to go to that person\u2019s rescue.\u00a0 Ninety-nine percent of us don\u2019t care about our own safety, we don\u2019t care who you are or where you\u2019re from, or what you look like, we just know that you need help and we\u2019re the only ones available to render aid.\u00a0 One of the reasons that I only watch a few minutes of the news is because unlike the story seen on NBC last evening, most of the news is bad.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m fed up with the bad news!\u00a0 We should all be focusing on the good in our country, because I assure you, there is so much more good than bad.\u00a0 I can\u2019t count the number of times that I\u2019ve been at a gas station filling up with my US Army hat on and people come from two or three islands away just to say \u201cthanks for your service\u201d.\u00a0 I am fortunate to live in a place where people actually speak to those passing by, where you can hold the door for someone and they actually say thank you with a smile.\u00a0 That\u2019s the America that I know and love, and yet so many of us tend to focus on the one rude person that we encounter every day, the news story that we see where someone who doesn\u2019t look like us commits a heinous crime.<\/p>\n
People have become so used to watching their Social Media feeds for bad news that they can seemingly no longer recognize good news when they see it.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a novel idea, why can\u2019t we all just stop watching the \u201cbad news\u201d, watching our Social Media feeds and thinking that everything is going to hell.\u00a0 Let\u2019s return to the days when we actually talked to each other.\u00a0 How many of you can remember the last time that you actually listened to what the person speaking to you was saying without trying to formulate your reply before they were finished speaking?\u00a0 I know that in a fast paced society we can sometimes forget that cell phones, laptops and tablets may not hold all of the answers in the world; and that by talking and listening we could do better, but it\u2019s surely true.<\/p>\n
Like myself, I know that many of you have traveled outside the United States, so I won\u2019t bore you with my travels.\u00a0 I will only tell you that although there are other countries in which I could see myself living, America is my home, and \u201cthere\u2019s no place like home\u201d.\u00a0 This is my country, I love it, and I believe it\u2019s the greatest country in world history.\u00a0 I believe that of the three hundred and fifty million people in this country, eighty-five percent are good citizens, regardless of race, religion or immigration status.\u00a0 Think about it, if you were one of the people in the first paragraph, would you need to know the race or immigration status of the people in that SUV before you tried to help them?\u00a0 I know that 99.9% of you would not, and that\u2019s a testament to who you are, and what a great America we live in.\u00a0 Despite what you might see on the news, or on social media, we are all really the same, just one America, White, Black, Hispanic, Muslim, Hindu, or other, it doesn\u2019t matter, because when the chips are down we will always be just one!<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take our country back, go out tomorrow morning and say hi with a smile to everyone you encounter!\u00a0 Hold the door for the person behind you, and remember, 99% of the people that you encounter are going to be pleasant, so don\u2019t let the 1% ruin your day.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m Just Sayin!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don\u2019t generally watch a lot of TV, but I do try to catch the news for a few minutes each evening before dinner.\u00a0 Last night I was watching the news on NBC when I saw a story about a … Continue reading