The Right thing to say?

I was writing yesterday for a group yesterday. I was actually commenting on someone's post. The topic was a last weekend's shooting of Arizonan congresswoman Mrs Garielle Giffords. In a moment of heated response to someone who had good-naturedly said that we need to all come together and try and move beyond the terrible events of last week and not inflame the situation by choosing to suggest that political among other undertones might have been responsible for the shooting. I said that there was nothing for the family of alleged shooter Jared Loughner to say to the family of critically injured congreswoman Giffords.

I went as far as saying that they might explain there son's action as stemming from grievances with the government of the day and then following the democratic understanding of allowing every citizen who so chooses the right to bear arms. looking back and having read a little further I would like to take those statements back and say that they were unfair and insensitive. Now in possession of information that tells us that his parents are actually mortified at their son's actions,have no explanation whatsoever as to why their beloved boy would carry out such a heinous act.

As a parent myself I can imagine how it must feel when you become infamous overnight and will be remembered for all the wrong reasons forever. It goes along way in bringing to the fore the understanding that we are all charged both great and small with the responsibility to say the right thing? For those of us who spend the greater percentage of our time putting views down on paper that several people will read that responsibility weighs a lot heavier. It is so easy to incite,to influence and to injure by saying the wrong thing? But then arises the question what is the wrong thing to say?

It becomes relative to whatever situation that you are dealing with. A lot of the time you need to think beyond your small world that you believe you are reaching out to. And ask yourself what effect this piece could have if it happened to reach a much larger audience. The reason for this is we have what I now call a global Digital Village where due to the interconnectivity of the Internet, and the numerous devices that access it on an ever regular basis what you say no longer remains exclusive to you anymore.

However insignificant you might think you are and what you think you are saying. It might end up being the proverbular stone thrown into the pond that has concentric ripples reaching out and touching things at distances that will seem bewilderingly unbelievable to us. So a soundbite to us all is reaching the level where we are sure as much as we possibly can that what we are saying is the right thing.