#davesdailychallenge (127): We Have Learned Nothing. I deliberately took a break over the last few weeks from my writing. I needed to step away after some of the things I witnessed. Mankind is a funny animal. It seems like it takes a true earth-shattering crisis to bring people together. When things are at their worst we are at our best. The problem is that things aren’t at their worst…they’re just bad. I have witnessed close friends tear each other apart these last few weeks over every topic under the sun to include firearm laws, terrorism, and the various political topics du jour. When are we going to understand that without empathy and an authentic desire to come together we are going to go nowhere. We will continue to fragment ourselves across an ever-expanding sea of manufactured differences instead of just taking a breath and realizing that the legions of brave “social media warriors” are doing significantly more harm than good. I have discussed this in the past but it needs repeating. You will never create buy-in/sell/convince another of ANYTHING if that person is pissed off. So, the next time your fingers itch to begin typing your “unique as a snowflake” response, ask yourself whether or not what your about to write is actually going to do any good or is this just perpetuating a cycle that leads to a bad place. We all have an innate need to be heard and I respect that. However, let’s focus on our shared values and not the petty differences that others will use to divide us. Let’s actually learn something this time around and not wait until a crisis occurs to shock us into compassion. We’re better than that. I know because I’ve seen it.