There are moments in our lives that stand out from all the others. Moments that can have a powerful impact on everything you do going forward. Times that have so much of your focus, it’s impossible not to learn from them.
When my son was a little guy, probably around five or six, we were on a family road trip. We pulled over at a truck stop for some fuel and snacks. When we got back in the vehicle, I noticed my son had something in his hand. I can’t remember if it was a piece of candy or a small toy. What I can remember is that he didn’t pay for it.
We were in a hurry to get where we were going, so the easy thing for me to do was ignore it. It couldn’t have cost more than fifty cents so where was the real harm?
I could have ignored it. But I didn’t. Because if I had, what lesson would that teach?
I made my son march back in the store by himself and give the item back to the cashier. After a few minutes, he came out in tears. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done as a parent. But I can tell you this, it was the last time my son ever took something that wasn’t his. To teach their kids to be better people, sometimes parents have to do hard things.
Over the past few years, we have seen many teachable moments. The deaths of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Michael Brown, Duarte Wright and the shooting of Jacob Blake were all teachable moments. Moments that parents, communities and Big Media could have used to teach a lesson about telling right from wrong, and the consequences that come from choosing to do wrong instead of right.
Instead of using those moments to teach kids how to be better people, the lesson being taught is that bad things that happen to you are someone else’s fault. And, that all cops are bastards.
While the parents and communities are to blame, blame is also shouldered by Big Media. The media continues to promote, yes actually promote, racism because they keep teaching people to believe that only black people are killed by police. Instead of using these teachable moments to reduce tensions and educate people on the facts, they’re making the problem worse by continuing to perpetuate the myth of racial division in America.
George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Michael Brown and Duarte Wright have been raised to sainthood by the media and portrayed to have been upstanding citizens who were hunted and murdered by police. They’ve been praised as martyrs. But they’re not martyrs, heroes or someone who should be looked up to. In reality, they were all bad people who made very bad decisions that resulted in their own deaths. They died because they were breaking the law.
These teachable moments could have been used to teach kids like 13-year-old Adam Toledo valuable lessons. They could have been taught that they are responsible for their own actions. They could have been taught to be better people. They could have been taught that if you fuck with the police, you’re quite likely going to get yourself killed.
But nobody taught Adam those things. And because he didn’t learn these lessons, Adam made the same stupid choices that those so-called “heroes” did, and he got himself killed.
Yes, there have been many teachable moments over the past few years. Moments that have so much of our focus it’s impossible not to learn from them. And, those moments have indeed been used to teach lessons. Just not the right ones.
Related Articles:
The Myth of Racial Division in America
Poor Choices
How NOT to Get Killed by the Police
