Along with road rage on the Garden State Parkway and it seems every side street, the issue of masking has become a trigger point for senseless rage. Last Tuesday at the Rutherford County Board of Education meeting on masks, high school junior Grady Knox stepped forward to ask the school board to mandate masks. He said that his grandmother had recently died of Covid. He was heckled and jeered by the so-called adults in the room.
Other students also asked for masking mandates, but the adults in the room shouted them down as well. What is it that is driving people to such behavior? TSA employees and airline crews have been attacked on the ground and in the sky by people who are angry about wearing masks.
We have lost our sense of community, of realizing that we must care for each other. The “I’m number one” mentality is destroying our society. As for Grady, the Board President apologized for the rudeness of the audience, and another student told the local TV station: “We were the adults in the room.” For sure.
Prayer for the Day
Bewildered by the anger and violence around us, O God,
We search for ways to soothe tempers and quiet passions;
Afflicted by our careless acts of selfishness against each other,
We seek out new ways to live in harmony with one another.
Save us from our false pride that admits no wrong,
And teach us humility and forgiveness.
We ask this in the name of him who forgave us all,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy.
Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 BCE)
In our daily life we encounter people who are angry, deceitful, and intent only on satisfying their own needs. There is so much distrust, anger, greed, and pettiness that we are losing our capacity to work together.
Margaret J. Wheatley, American writer and teacher
Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently;
Do not fret over those who prosper in their way, or those who carry out evil devices.
Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret – it leads only to evil.
Psalm 37: 7-8.