Hope over Harm

Every day we make many choices. For me, I hope — and make every attempt — to make choices that help people rather than harm them.

It hurts my heart to see social media posts where people mock a person’s death or even threaten the lives of politicians they disagree with. It’s discouraging. It’s disappointing.

Respecting a person who has died is not a validation of their lifestyle or their choices — even if that person caused harm to you or to those you love. You can choose to say nothing. But to mock, to make fun? To me, that lowers the bar. It prevents us, in some way, from building the society we wish for. From being the people we want to be.

When you strongly disagree with someone — even someone who caused harm — how do you decide what your response says about who you’re becoming?