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Thursday, December 26, 2019

As We Head into Not Just a New Year but a New Decade ...

I would love for us all to be a kinder, gentler version of humanity. Yet I also see the need for boundaries and for standing up to bullies, with kindness and tact as needed but with a firm stand when required as well. That said, here are some recommendations as we near 2020:

  1. Read Candace Cameron Bure's book, Kind Is the New Classy, and others of its ilk. We can all change the world, one person at a time, starting with ourselves. If that book title doesn't call to you, then I suggest watching the rip-roaring action movie, 6 Underground, with Ryan Reynolds, currently offered on Netflix. Yes, I'm tongue-in-cheek here, as you don't need to be a billionaire tech guru or to own guns to pull off this "save the world" motif. But this should get your blood pumping and may inspire you to at least get off the couch and to make yourself into a better human being, one step at a time.
  2. Follow through with actions, not just speaking your words or reading someone else's words about good ideas for New Year's resolutions. Make active resolutions, where you follow through. When I cut back on my drive-through Starbucks addiction (ha!), I ended up funneling that money into Kiva loans. I still drink Starbucks but mostly the home-brewed version. Yet this change felt right back then. Feels true now as well.
  3. I urge everyone of legal age to register to vote and to cast your vote, regardless of which political election is involved. NOTE: This is not a political forum. Any comments too pointed in that vein will be deleted, even if I agree with you. No names to be named, please. No name-calling will be tolerated here. I urge everyone to register to vote and to cast your vote. It's the American way. So many countries in the world don't have this right. Heck, we American women just got the right to vote less than one hundred years ago, via the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to our US Constitution, officially adopted on August 26, 1920. Not even one century ago could US-born females of age vote. Shaking my head as here I sit, in this country, the land of the free. Hard to fathom, yes. But, regardless of your sex, vote. Offer to drive a senior citizen to the polls with you or someone without a vehicle or whoever you can help to get there who might not otherwise make the effort without a nudge.
  4. Be gentle with yourself as well as others, as long as your rights aren't being violated.
  5. Speak up if you are being violated. Speak up if you witness others being violated. You have to stand up to bullies. Don't wait. Do it now. This reminds me of a famous Ayn Rand quote, which goes something like this, "Evil requires the sanction of the victim." I would love to further tweak that line to say:
The continuance of evil requires the continued silence of the victim.
Don't be silent when it comes to evil.

Here's to New Year 2020. May it bring in a better era, a brighter decade, a healthier, happier and more peaceful humanity.

Denise Barker
Author, Blogger, Copy Editor


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