Originally posted on Facebook HERE

Coming at you late this morning. Had a show last night and actually slept in a little today, which was nice. I’m not sure if you’re seeing what I’m seeing on social media these days, but to me it looks like in the USA anyway we’re getting shittier to each other than any time I can ever remember. That’s extremely sad to me. We seem to be sliding instead of climbing. Battle lines are being drawn. As a country we’ve ways had differences of opinion. And over the years things have been pretty heated more than once as well. But for the most part throughout my life I’ve always thought that even though we might disagree on how to get there, we as a people have always had similar overall goals. We want peace. We want our families to be safe. We want freedom of speech. We want free and fair elections. We want to leave a better world for our kids and grandkids… etc, etc, etc… and I’ve seen and been in a lot of arguments over what is the best way to get there over the years, but in most cases it wouldn’t get to the level of hatred and disrespect I’m seeing these days. Social media makes it easier to be an asshole, for sure. If we were disagreeing face to face in a bar (where these conversations often take place here in Wisconsin), you might take a bit more caution in your responses, right? Because once tempers flare in that situation you might get smacked in the face. Back when I used to drink I’d have these conversations every now and then and alcohol didn’t exactly calm things down at all. So, eventually I got to know what friends I could talk to who didn’t agree with my point of view, and what friends we just both “agreed to disagree” and not ever go there again – because we were both too quick to anger and valued the friendship over politics. But online?… wow. Easy to spread hatred and anger. Easy to stoke the anger, too, if that’s your thing. And it seems to be the thing for a lot of people on social media, too. It’s disheartening to me. We will never agree with anyone else 100% on anything. Politics, religion, sports, music – we’re all unique. And deep down I still have faith that most of us favor love over anger. Peace over conflict. Connection over division. Personally, I try to keep my inner circle and my social media contacts with my friends and family who think and live with these values. Integrity is important. Honesty is important. Love is important. Bringing people up, not tearing people down is important. There’s more than enough hatred to go around these days. Darkness always gives way to light. Let’s try to shed light whenever possible. I have to believe that love always wins in the end.