{"id":1571,"date":"2016-09-26T02:18:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T02:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2016-09-26T02:18:01","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T02:18:01","slug":"stay-positive-times-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/areasontosmile\/2016\/09\/stay-positive-times-like.html","title":{"rendered":"How to stay positive during times like these"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"13257069_514553265403856_502693467_n\"<\/a>Confession: I\u2019ve spent about a week working on my follow-up article to my recent article: Dear America, from a black guy<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s taken longer than any other, because I keep getting upset and having to start over again.\u00a0 There really is too much to put into words.<\/p>\n

I talked about exactly how this all feels on a recent episode of Rise UP with B. Dave Walters<\/a>. And, if you follow me on Facebook<\/a> then you\u2019ve seen my comments on the most recent string of police violence, the ugly underbelly of America being exposed by the Trump campaign, and more.\u00a0 We\u2019ll get back to that another time.<\/p>\n

So here, let me say something I haven\u2019t said outright: Why and how I can stay positive in the face of all this insanity.
\nBear with me, because this requires some background: Recently Hillary Clinton came under fire for referring to half of Trump\u2019s supporters as a \u2018basket of deplorables.\u2019 Was this an accurate statement? Absolutely. If anything, saying \u2018half\u2019 was kind.\u00a0 But, since this is supposed to be a positive article, I won\u2019t belabor the point.<\/p>\n

But what does that statement mean?\u00a0 As of now, Trump has the support of roughly 40% of the country. That means roughly 20% of the country is \u2018deplorable.\u2019\u00a0 20%. Sounds like a lot, doesn\u2019t it? One in five.<\/p>\n

But you know what else that means?\u00a0 Four out of five people aren\u2019t <\/em>racist, misogynist, \u00a0xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, or some other phobic. <\/em>Four out of five people are normal, decent, human beings.\u00a0 Eight out of ten are just like you.<\/p>\n

So odds are, the people you meet on the street aren\u2019t hate filled and intolerant, they\u2019re just trying to make their way through life, just like you.<\/p>\n

The internet is the closest thing we have to world-wide telepathy.\u00a0 And it can be frightening to see some of the short sighted, ignorant, offensive, and often vile things keyboard warriors like to post.
\nSo, as you see those posts of innocent unarmed people getting shot and it breaks your heart, but seeing the comments of people trying to justify why they deserved to die starts making your blood boil, notice how many people are saying awful stuff, and how many are just as outraged as you are.<\/p>\n

The simple answer is, as Mr. Rogers said, look for the helpers.<\/p>\n

Since the truth is, there will always be people saying awful things; some of them can be reached, some of them can\u2019t.\"look-for-the-helpers\"<\/a>\u00a0 Let\u2019s say half of those \u2018deplorable\u2019 people are lost, that still means there is hope for the other half.<\/p>\n

That means nine out of ten people aren\u2019t so bad, and those aren\u2019t bad odds.<\/p>\n

So despite the pain and hostility that has been flying around, I still declare this is the greatest time in history to be alive.\u00a0 We, ALL of us, have it better than any people have had it any time in history. Look back across time and see how common hatred, intolerance, and death were for the common person.<\/p>\n

Now those people are the weird ones. Now the racists, the bigots, the misogynists are the ones on their heels.\u00a0 Every day the world moves closer to inclusion and diversity, and nothing and no one can stop the flow.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all in this together. We\u2019re all cousins, we\u2019re all neighbors; what happens to one of us, affects us all.\u00a0 \u00a0More and more people are realizing that every day, and that my friend is progress.<\/p>\n

The hatred and violence aren’t new, the\u00a0cameras<\/em> are new. \u00a0The people speaking out are new. The calls for unity are new.\u00a0So keep your head up. We\u2019ve got more work to do, but things are moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Feel free to comment down below!<\/p>\n

You are great, and I love you!
\nAnd if you love me back, click ‘share’ up at the top!<\/p>\n

B. Dave Walters Writer, Life Coach, and Talk Radio Host<\/p>\n

Find out more about me:\u00a0http:\/\/about.me\/BDaveWalters<\/a><\/p>\n

Ask me anything:\u00a0http:\/\/formspring.me\/BDaveWalters<\/a><\/p>\n

Become a supporter of my work:\u00a0http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bdavewalters<\/a><\/p>\n

Pages I support:
\nJesus and Buddha<\/a>\u00a0— Interfaith dialog<\/p>\n

Gnostic Theism<\/a>\u00a0— Religion and Spirituality for the 21st Century (Join the Movement!)<\/p>\n

Love One Another<\/a>\u00a0— A group for the coolest Spiritual people on the Internet!<\/p>\n

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Confession: I\u2019ve spent about a week working on my follow-up article to my recent article: Dear America, from a black guy.\u00a0 It\u2019s taken longer than any other, because I keep getting upset and having to start over again.\u00a0 There really is too much to put into words. I talked about exactly how this all feels…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":450,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,37,55,39,29,81,38,31,28,112,41,48,1,78],"tags":[3,34,13,12,11,82,70,36,14,26,25,5,50,56],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-108","category-change-2","category-emotions-2","category-fear","category-happiness","category-healing","category-hope-inspiration","category-love-2","category-peace","category-pessimism","category-positive-thinking","category-spirituality","category-uncategorized","category-worry","tag-b-dave-walters","tag-breakthroughs","tag-change","tag-emotions","tag-gnostic-theism","tag-grief","tag-guilt","tag-hope","tag-life-coach","tag-peacelovemoney-com","tag-psychology","tag-rise-up","tag-spiritual-but-not-religious","tag-stress"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to stay positive during times like these - A Reason to Smile<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to stay positive during times like these - A Reason to Smile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Confession: I\u2019ve spent about a week working on my follow-up article to my recent article: Dear America, from a black guy.\u00a0 It\u2019s taken longer than any other, because I keep getting upset and having to start over again.\u00a0 There really is too much to put into words. 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