Give Peace a Chance

It was my plan to write my weekly column for today about my 11th anniversary with NiceGirlsTV, as I wanted to take a moment to celebrate all those years for which I have been a part of the writing team. This is an anniversary that I value and treasure because it has been not only a fun experience for me to be a contributor here at NiceGirls but also a valuable learning experience for me as well.

That plan changed, however, over the course of the last few days with all of the unbelievable upheaval that has been happening not just here in Los Angeles (my adopted home for the past 20 years) but also countless other cities all over the country where people are protesting the murder of George Floyd by racists cops in Minneapolis.

I get it that people want to protest and we all have that right; but what I have a problem with are those factions that are using the protests for their own cruel means. I’m talking about the groups that hit the cities where protests are taking place, looting countless stores, vandalizing buildings with graffiti and setting fires to businesses many of which were just getting ready to reopen after nearly 11 weeks of being closed due to COVID-19.

What the hell is wrong with people involved in these factions? How can you do this? Are you that greedy and that, well, pathetic that you have to take advantage of peaceful protests for your ill-gotten gains? Do you think you are getting one over on the cops? Do you feel superior by robbing from store owners, who are struggling after months of the pandemic halting the economy? Do you think that justice, at some point or another, will never catch up to you?

There is the belief that karma will catch up with you; and I hope that holds true for the factions who are coming into our cities, taking advantage of the peaceful protests to rob, vandalize and burn. You deserve whatever is coming for you!

I can only hope that as the days progress that the horrifying incidents that have plagued our cities will come to a halt; that the thieves and vandals are caught and that we can FINALLY see some really change come to our world. That may be a lofty hope given the centuries of injustice that have been perpetrated on so many people, but it’s far past time that things change for the better.

[Featured Image Photo Credit: Symbols N Emoticons]