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On The Bricks

February 6, 2019

There are far too many people throwing stones at one another, especially on facebook and other places where they can do it without looking someone in the eye. Too much thinking our opinion is the only opinion going around. Doesn’t matter where you are, it seems to be the norm now. My way is the only way.

That’s a bunch of bull.

There are lots of things that we don’t have to agree on to be able to be good neighbors, to work together, to move forward, to be positive, and to be kind. I recently read an article about author Jacqueline Bussie that had some very good points.

“… love is about understanding and not about agreement. Understanding and agreement: they’re not the same thing, they’ve never been the same thing. Love demands only the first thing, not the second.

“If we think about our lives, we all have a powerful experience of loving someone, and maybe even understanding them, even though we don’t agree with them. I heard someone say the other day, ‘We’ve been tricked into hating each other.’ I feel that that’s what’s happening.

“We have to build transgressive friendships, friendships that cross boundaries we’re told not to cross. This is crucial to changing the world. All the social science out there shows that what truly changes people is a friendship with a person who is different from them … this how people’s hearts are changed and stereotypes stop.”

I believe this. She speaks truth. And it is why the Main Street Guymon Aggie Family program that matches OPSU Aggie athletes who are a long distance from home is so important. It changes people and it supports our youth.

This is also why the Know Your Neighbor Series is good for the community. In October Main Street Guymon brought in an anthropologist who spoke about Ethiopia and Eretria. This month we have a documentary film about the Lost Boys of Sudan followed by a panel of South Sudanese Lost Boys from Guymon to speak and answer questions.

It is always a good idea to get to know your neighbors better.

You’re welcome to come to the afternoon about South Sudan on Sun., Feb. 24, from 2 to 4:30 pm at the Guymon Public Library Safe Room, 1718 N. Oklahoma Street. It is a free event and open to children who can be quiet during an hour long film.

We can always get smarter.

We can always be nicer.

We can always act kinder.

See you on the bricks!