How Did We Get Here? Vol. 2

How many times in the last year or so have you awakened and thought to yourself the that world has lost its damn mind?

Someone tweets
Someone claps back
Social media feuds
He's following her, she's following him; ooops wait, now they're unfollowing each other.
A couple of years ago, unfollowing wasn't even a word.  I am not sure it's one now...spell check keeps nudging me.

Apparently, you can be a sexual predator and be elected president

More than once in the last couple of weeks while reading various news reports about various topics I have seen comments like "day of reckoning" or "at a crossroads".  I was astonished at how many #metoo stories came to light recently.  I could have added my own but that's not the point of this post.

How Did I Get Here?  It's the tagline on my blog.  It was a phrase I said to myself for days in January of 2015 as I grappled with a cancer diagnosis.

How Did WE Get HERE?  It was a title of a blog post last year in the midst of the most bizarre campaign and election season that I have seen in my lifetime and it probably wouldn't be inaccurate to say EVER.

I can say it again.

How Did We Get Here?

We live in a world where if you have 19 children, you get a TV show, if you have sextuplets or quintuplets you get a TV show, if you're willing to have the early stages of your relationship funded by a TV network and  videotaped for the world...you're on a TV show,  if you're a hoarder, you're on a TV show.

We live in a world where pretty much everything in a person's life is fodder for FB or Instagram or Snapchat.  Why do I care?  Why do you care?

Life is chronicled in Pinterest moments and god forbid it doesn't turn out the way it is in the photo on your computer.

We live in a world where norms and behaviors that were accepted (or ignored) 50, 40, 30 years ago are no longer accepted or ignored.

Am I the only person who had parents constantly telling me to keep my hands to myself as I was growing up???  Am I the only person who gets the concept of right vs. wrong?  I am not saying I am perfect by a long shot but I am truly ASTOUNDED  by the seemingly constant flow of sexual misconduct claims being levied against powerful people.  Do you have any idea how many times I have wanted to walk up to these people that I don't know and ask "WTF is wrong with you?" On what planet is forcibly kissing (or assaulting) someone OK?  No, not Earth.

Once caught these scumbags apologize.  Well great, maybe you ruined someone’s life but hey I’m sorry.  Or the one that makes me want to scream...I am sorry if I offended anyone.  Either be sorry or don’t be sorry.  OWN IT.

You will garner respect and forgiveness if you own your words and actions every day.  Think about what you do and say...and type.

If you’re a public figure, you should be held to a higher standard...you’re setting an example.  Maybe those of us who aren’t public figures should double down on teaching right from wrong.

We should demand more of our leaders; our president, our members of Congress, our state and county level leaders, our sports heroes, our favorite celebrities.  We should demand more from ourselves.  We’re better than this, better than reality TV, better than brain vomit, better than pointing fingers, better than average.

I hope when the dust settles, there will be clear guidelines in certain industries.  I don’t know about you but I have had enough sexual harassment training in the giftware industry to be certified to teach a class.  I have a few suggestions for industries that could benefit from some intensive education. I guess I don’t understand how so many “respected” people are so void of anything worth respecting.

I guess the phrase “If you see something, say something”, applies here too.  We’re better than this.

I am hopeful that on a day in the not so distant future, I will wake up to a world that has come to its senses.