Kindness Matters - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

Over the weekend, the Loughlin family packed into the car and made the long trip to London to run some long-overdue errands. As we crawled through Exeter, a woman walking a dog stumbled and fell. Seemingly, in her mind, the dog was to blame for this, so she kicked it - quite full-footedly - and continued on their walk.

 

We were too far past the incident when it happened, nor did I want my kids to hear what I felt inclined to say to the aforementioned person, so we did nothing to defend the poor, four-legged victim, but it’s safe to say that it bothered us. (The kids, luckily, missed it.)

 

Jess was just a bit flabbergasted by the whole thing, kind of looking at me and then looking back at the dog-kicker and then back at me again. That then kicked off a discussion that lasted for much of the rest of the drive - aside from the intermittent, yet regular, asking of the question, “Are we there yet?” - that I basically started by saying it feels as though the world is a lot less civilized than it used to be these days.

 

There have always been wars, there has always been crime and, heck, there have always been people kicking dogs, but it just feels like we’re in an era in which caring about your fellow man is at an all-time low level.

 

As people - many of them civilians, women and children - die in the Middle East, those who dare to grace the internet with their wisdom in comment sections can’t turn a blind eye fast enough. That’s there, they’ll say, what about here? They deserve it. They asked for it. We need to spend money on Canadians.

 

Then there’s the stuff going on with that goof to the south that Americans saw fit to elect a second time. As he threatens the very livelihood of our country, Canadians will squabble about this or that, yelling in comment sections, taking shots at our Prime Minister and laughing about the state of the world. These folks never tend to come equipped with solutions of their own, of course.

 

Violent crime is all around us. Aside from war that is enveloping many countries around the world, not a day goes by that we don’t hear about some sort of horrific act here at home, whether it be another mass shooting in the U.S. or young people being assaulted or killed here in Canada. These trends, it should be said, weigh heavily on a father’s head.

 

And yet, no one cares. People blame immigrants, they blame Justin Trudeau, they blame Mark Carney, they blame Doug Ford, as if a simple vote in a regular election will make it all go away. The prominent nature of some of the world’s most powerful leaders and their increasingly aggressive and hateful views has helped bring out similar feelings in the general public. Racism isn’t taboo anymore, it’s, simply, a way of life for many these days. 

 

I could cite specific examples, or I could not, but I just get the feeling that the world is a more frigid place that it was 10 or 15 years ago. If people were hateful, as I guess they were, they at least kept it to themselves, sparing us from the miserable state of their miserable lives. Now, they’re emboldened.

 

Back to the dog-kicker. It all just felt like it came together there. Someone just absolutely booting a dog because, hey, who cares? And, as my kids enter phases of their lives in which they’re starting to clash with one another, Jess and I sometimes feel as though we’re sledding uphill when we preach to them that violence isn’t the answer. That we need to be kind to one another and treat each other with respect. It’s hard not to feel like I’m on the Titanic as it goes down giving these speeches.