(This post may not be what you expect from the title, and I acknowledge that.)
I saw this article on Facebook, which is where I seem to get 90% of my news.
It came from the Daily Mail, which made me hope, for one single moment, that this would prove to be a hoax.
I don’t think it is. And even if it turns out to be so, it doesn’t change the reality for others.
Here it is. The words, they are not pretty. But they are real. So too are the pictures, if you click through.
In a word, it’s horrible.
On Facebook or otherwise, I don’t usually advocate the shock-horror type of posts with the graphic pictures, because it’s too easy for people to turn away or deaden themselves to it.
Those are natural reactions that take work to overcome, the same way it takes work to develop empathy.
But: Social media as a whole is a prime tool for spreading awareness. My own channels may only go far, but adding a signal boost as a component to all the other ways to help halt abuse we as people willingly inflict and support–that’s one big yes.
And that goes for anything else!
We all know the kind of person who says, “Instead of talking about it, do something about it!” without bothering to give you the benefit of the doubt that yes, you are capable of both talking and doing.
We also know the type of person who channels their energy into derailing tactics such as, “But you’re talking about only this one thing right now and not these 16 Other Arbitrarily More Important Things simultaneously, so therefore you don’t care about them and are a bad person!!”
I’ve come across both types. Neither of them proved worthy of my time or energy.
This is also why I’m not going to translate not “liking” or commenting on this post into not caring.
Over this past year, I’ve seen a lot of my friends and acquaintances open up about hidden things: Illnesses, feelings, plans, hopes, challenges.
Almost invariably, each post ends with, “I feel better for sharing this.”
That “sharing is caring” adage works internally, too.
So along with my main point, which is something along the lines of, “We all need to do More Better at putting the humane into humanity for all living creatures, ourselves included,” with an adjacent thought-process akin to a whirling Catherine Wheel (the firework pinwheel, not the other kind) comprised of Resources! Local groups! Petitions! that haven’t fully manifested, I offer this:
Don’t let someone shame you into NOT talking about what matters to you, online or off.
Keeping communication open is the clearest way we’re going to make things More Better. Money helps too, of course, but without communication, we are sunk.
Author Becky Benishek 