Be careful who you call a snowflake

 

People, when will they ever learn? These days it seems that anyone who gives a rat's behind about anything is labeled as a snowflake. To which I say, “Not so fast, good friends. Being kind is not so easy.” Being a “snowflake” is a lot more of a challenge than being a hard ass or ignoring the wrongs and la dee da-ing through life because they don't impact you directly.

Personally, I'm at peace with being a so-called snowflake. Here's why:

Compassion is not a cop-out. Kindness takes strength, perseverance and dedication. Sometimes it even means finding the good in those who seem to be made up of 99.9% evil.

Compassion involves standing up for the rights of all, including those who don't agree with you, are misguided, cruel or only seem to care about themselves. 

These days, being compassionate even means putting yourself in danger. Because for some reason, people who lack compassion are offended by those who believe in it. 

In contrast, it's quite easy to put yourself first and walk away from things you'd rather not admit are happening. It's easy to be hard. It's easy to ignore. Cognitive dissonance makes life simple for those who are not strong enough to face the truth. The real snowflakes are the ones who haven't the strength or courage to worry about anyone but themselves.

And trust me, I would love to distance myself from the evils of the world. But not enough to live every day sheltered from the harsh realities of life in a society gone mad.

Why not just enjoy life and let the chips fall where they may? I'll tell you why not. Because if everyone in the world ignored injustice, justice would cease to exist.

Someone has to care enough to take a stand against bias, exclusion, cruelty and hatred. Are these people snowflakes? I don't think so. Quite the opposite, in fact. Those are the folks I want in my corner. They are strong and capable with hearts in the right place.

On the other hand, I suppose you could side with the bullies of the world. They seem to be strong, don't they? But that's just it. They only appear to be strong. Their resilience and confidence are lacking, Which is why they have to put others down in an effort to inflate their own egos.

And, final point, guess what? Not all those you call snowflakes have had an easy life. Some have had to push through hardships that would do a lot of people in. So be careful who you call a snowflake. You might be handing them a doubly disrespectful insult. (Disrespectful of both their beliefs and their long, hard struggle to get where they are.) And the resulting blizzard may be more than you bargained for.

Because compassionate people are the majority in this country, folks. And history has proven, they will, quietly and effectively over-rule your agenda of fear mongering, hatred and exclusion every time.