This was a St. Louis headline today.  The high-end Parkway School District in western St. Louis County has a very ethnically diverse student body.  An African-American Parkway Central girl was interviewed about this incident for a TV newscast.  She said nothing like this has ever happened to her before.  My first thought upon hearing her statement was that our President and others in high positions have made it acceptable to speak in derogatory and divisive terms of people who disagree with them, and/or of people who are not like themselves.  As a result, incidents like this seem to be increasing in number.

In my opinion, the recent well-publicized tweet exchange between Chairman Kim of North Korea and President Trump approaches cyber bullying–a crime in most states–and definitely falls into the category of body-shaming.  That two world leaders would address each other in such a disrespectful (and public!) manner is shocking to me.

Regardless of one’s opinion of these two world leaders, they (and far too many other influential people) are speaking and acting in ways that no mother I’ve ever known would allow.  In addition to the hate speech that is becoming daily news, it’s getting hard to keep track of the number of well-known and highly-positioned men currently accused of improper sexual conduct with children and women.  When will this divisive and disrespectful behavior stop?  My mother taught me that I didn’t have to like everyone I met, and that I didn’t have to make them my best friends, but I was never to treat others without the respect due to them as human beings.  I thought that’s what all mothers taught their children.  Apparently, this is not true.

I try to avoid becoming political in this blog, but I’m tired of sitting quietly by while hate and divisiveness are chipping away at our valuable American melting pot.  Just as many state and local governments are trying to do the right thing in the absence of federal leadership and support (raising minimum wages, funding infrastructure projects, fulfilling the Paris Accord commitments, etc.), we–the people–are going to have to be the ones to say “this is wrong” and to demonstrate respect, tolerance, and inclusiveness to other individuals, regardless of race, creed, color, or gender.