Sometimes, You Just Have to Rant

So, I\’ve tried very hard to keep my thoughts to myself, and have had to bite my tongue several times over the last few days, but I can\’t keep quiet anymore. If nothing more than just to vent for a minute and get it all off my chest. Everything going on right now with Covid, and BLM protests, and everything in between is weighing down on everyone\’s minds and in many cases, it\’s bringing out the worst in people. It\’s been hard to be on social media the past few days, because people are just spewing hate and false information, and it\’s just plain frustrating.

First of all, Covid is affecting everyone everywhere. Some people worse than others. There are still so many people out there who think wearing a mask is not going to help anything, and not taking any other necessary precautions because the \”whole thing is made up.\” People are dying and people are getting very sick. This isn\’t something to take lightly. Even if you aren\’t worried about getting it yourself, worry about those around you. A person could be perfectly healthy one day, and the next be strapped to a ventilator because they had been exposed to someone with the virus. In some cases, we don\’t know who is going to get hit harder than others, and it\’s in everyone\’s best interest to take precautions whenever possible.

Up until recently, Watertown has been sitting pretty good with the number of Covid cases, but now that school is back in session, and people are getting together more often, we\’ve seen a bit of a surge. Lake Area has been very good about updating us on what is going on inside and outside of school, and how many cases we currently have. And while most students have been good about wearing masks and socially distancing IN SCHOOL, they aren\’t always taking precautions outside of school. A good number of cases we\’ve had stemmed from parties where people are getting together and sharing drinks and what have you. I get that parties are a part of college, but come on! We are in a worldwide pandemic people. Let\’s try to be a little smarter.

I\’m sure everyone who watches the news or is on some kind of social media channel heard about the Grand Jury ruling on the Breonna Taylor case this week. Riots are breaking out once more because people believe the officers should have been charged for murdering Breonna. There are so many different versions of what happened floating around, that everyone has their own opinion on what happened and what should have happened that night. I\’ve seen people getting into word fights on Facebook because they think this or that happened and what happened was murder, and just another example of police violence on innocent black people. I took the time to do some fact checking on this case, just because I honestly didn\’t know what to believe, and how angry I should be over this event.

In the end, the jury ruling in only charging one of the officers was the right choice. The police had a no-knock warrant. Whether they really did announce themselves or not – it\’s their word against the boyfriend\’s at this point – it doesn\’t really matter. They didn\’t need to. Once the boyfriend opened fire, they had every right to fire back to defend themselves. Breonna was caught in the crossfire, and her death was a very unfortunate accident, but it was not intentional. Whether there were drugs on the premises or not, the police had a reason to believe there was, and they had the right to search. This was not some random place they walked into and starting shooting because the people were black – as much as some people want to say it was. I think the right call was made, and I truly don\’t think the story would have blown up the way it did if Breonna was white.

I\’ll stop ranting now, but the point I want to make is that we all need to start caring more about others, and stop pointing fingers at everyone who does something we don\’t like. There are going to be bad people in the world, no matter what their profession is, but that doesn\’t make all people bad. Take the time to hear the whole story before you start rampaging across social media. And sometimes if you see something you don\’t agree with, it\’s better to just walk away! If you wouldn\’t say something to someone\’s face, then why on Earth would you say it on social media. By hiding behind the screen, you are being a coward, because you know there won\’t be any consequences for your words. Start thinking before you act.

I fully expect to get some hate for what I said in this blog post, and if you\’d like to have a civilized conversation with me about it, I\’m totally open to it. I just ask that you treat me with the same kind of respect that you would expect me treat you.

Thanks for listening to my rant, and I\’ll be back with more positive content next week.

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger