{"id":474,"date":"2016-07-08T17:21:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T21:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dubmentality.com\/?p=474"},"modified":"2016-07-08T17:21:06","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T21:21:06","slug":"the-human-element","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/?p=474","title":{"rendered":"The Human Element"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m going to break my own rule of keeping this blog light hearted and nostalgic and fun. I\u2019m sure the feedback will be mixed on this one too but this is where I am at. I am not speaking for a nation or a state or a people. I am speaking for Joseph Shiver. We have all lived a unique life and wear our own glasses to view the world in which we live. I am not black or Muslim or a police officer so I can\u2019t speak from any of those perspectives. Nor can I discount what any of those groups claim as their perspective. But, I am a human being. And I have to ask, \u201cWhat the hell are we doing people?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the simplest of statements. Don\u2019t believe everything you see on Facebook! That goes for the news as well. If you haven\u2019t figured out by now, \u201cthe right and the left\u201d tailor their stories for their constituents. If you want to read about how Hillary should go to prison, go to the conservative sites. If you want to read about how Trump will destroy the country, which wouldn\u2019t take a lot of effort considering the current state of affairs, check out liberal media. I find myself leaning more and more towards the middle.  
\n <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the number 1 hot button issue in politics? Race. I\u2019m not about to sit here and tell you it isn\u2019t a real issue. I\u2019ve been around long enough to know that it is one of the most volatile issues we face in our country. But here are my thoughts on how politics and race married, forming the unholiest of unions. It is used by both sides to further their own progress, to our detriment as a human race. The left is going to feed you news that infuriates their party and keeps the fire stoked while their candidate struggles through criminal charges for wrongdoing. The right is going to feed you news that does the same for their party while their candidate shoots off at the mouth every chance he gets about minorities or women or building a wall. They are both despicable in their own unique ways in my opinion. It\u2019s true, there are more important things going on besides thousands of email breaches but don\u2019t divide the country to prove your point.<\/p>\n

 Keep in mind that I am not talking about the actual events at all. That\u2019s where my comments above about not having the appropriate perspective come in. I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be a black man pulled over by the police. I also don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be a police officer trying to get a suspect to comply. What I do know is the way the events are reported is screwed up. There is no other way I can explain how people have such staunch responses to a tragic event such as this. There are no winners or losers but the media makes it out that way. I\u2019m telling you that everybody loses when something like this happens. We have one group sharing memes about the deceased being a convicted sex offender carrying a concealed weapon and the other shares memes about him being a family man. It works both ways too. The recently \u201cconvicted\u201d, and I use that term loosely, college swimmer who brutally raped a girl after a campus party, was shown on some news sites in his graduation photos or with his swimming garb on. The other sites showed his mug shot, as was, I believe, appropriate.  <\/p>\n

 Here\u2019s the only fact we really know when a story like this breaks \u2013 \u201cWe know absolutely nothing about all of the events that took place.\u201d All we do know is that the end result was horrific. But arguments over the end result quickly spin into debates on what is or isn\u2019t justified. Do you see the problem in this? How can we determine if anything is justified or not without full disclosure? We have a snippet of a cell phone video but it doesn\u2019t tell the whole story. I know what I see and it doesn\u2019t look good. But I haven\u2019t seen everything. What I did see was a man lose his life. Whether or not it was justified is not the immediate issue in my mind. My heart goes out to the deceased\u2019s family as they have lost a father, husband and brother. He may or may not have been a terrible guy but he was those things to some people and those people will be hurting. Then my heart goes out to the officers involved because they will immediately be under fire for their actions. They have to live with that moment for the rest of their lives, right or wrong. And any human being with a conscience will wrestle with that until the day they die.  <\/p>\n

 Therein lie\u2019s the problem. Is it not ok for me to feel for both parties? Do both parties not deserve that immediate consideration until the facts present themselves in their entirety? If I \u201cBack the Blue\u201d, does that make me either a racist or someone who doesn\u2019t care about the victim? If I support the victim\u2019s family in their grief, does that make me \u201canti-police\u201d? You can answer that however you want to but I can assure that I am neither. Then the million dollar question becomes, \u201cWhen is taking someone else\u2019s life justifiable?\u201d I don\u2019t want to nor am I qualified to answer that question. I believe there is only one judge and jury. I know that I will go to any lengths to protect myself and my family but fortunately, I am not in the position to have to do that every time I go to work. So it\u2019s not for me to try the police for murder on social media. Nor is it for me to condemn the deceased as someone who got what they deserved.<\/p>\n

 I grew up in Small Town America (I hate that term), Camilla, GA. I went to Mitchell-Baker High School and anyone will tell you that I am proud to say that. I have played sports from the time I was 11 until this very day with a diverse group of people. I have not been sheltered to race and it\u2019s effects on us as a society. But again, I have always considered myself a human being. That is my race. I consider BJ Harris, Ashley Kinnett, Joe Jackson, Tavis Cole, Jorge Rodriguez and Jomar Diaz my friends and brothers in this world, among many, many others. That\u2019s why it bothers me so much to see friends and family fall victim to this enraging game that is played with us. It pits us against one another. It reveals our weaknesses as a society. You begin to question whether you should be friends with people anymore because of what they share on FB instead of relying on what you believe to be in their heart from a lifetime of knowing them.<\/p>\n

 When the facts come out, if the police were in the wrong, they should be dealt with accordingly. If the suspect\u2019s actions led to the result, let\u2019s talk to each other about what should be done differently without accusations or division. We have to stand up for what\u2019s right and condemn what\u2019s wrong, no matter whose side of the fence it happens on. It\u2019s ok to feel for the victim and family. It\u2019s ok to be thankful for all of the police that protect us. It\u2019s ok to stand in solidarity against violence. It\u2019s ok to condemn a criminal just like its ok to condemn a bad cop. It\u2019s NOT ok to incite violence or promote violence or cheer when violence occurs as many have the last few days. What I witnessed last night happening in Dallas is the stuff of nightmares. It never settles the score. It never evens the scale. It only deepens the chasm that is fracturing us as human beings. And in the end, that is what we all are; living, feeling human beings.<\/p>\n

 J-Dub<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m going to break my own rule of keeping this blog light hearted and nostalgic and fun. I\u2019m sure the feedback will be mixed on this one too but this is where I am at. I am not speaking for a nation or a state or a people. I am speaking for Joseph Shiver. We … Continue reading “The Human Element”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7912A-7E","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubmentality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}