Normally at this time of the year we would be showcasing photos and stories from another successful Pink Shirt Day and Battle of the Badges hockey game between Delta Fire and Delta Police and celebrating diversity, inclusion and anti-bullying.
But, sadly, as has been the case with pretty well every event in the past year, the game and all the in-person festivities including a packed Sungod Arena with elementary school students, did not happen because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But this didn’t stop the City of Delta, police, fire and school district from producing a Pink Shirt Day video and promoting the messages around Pink Shirt Day.
While I applaud all of the efforts from everyone involved in sharing all these important messages, we all need to be doing a lot more to spread these messages in our community.
In the past year, I have noticed more and more that civility – especially on-line – has gone out the window.
Many seem to think that they can say whatever they want on Facebook groups including the Optimist Facebook page without any sense of accountability.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a good debate. I love engaging with my friends, family, coworkers and our readers in a lively discussion on various topics be they local, provincial or international news and events. A frank exchange of different ideas and perspectives is healthy to more a discussion forward and offer up another way at looking at things. I totally encourage this, but when the tone of the conversation turns toxic, resorts to name calling and in my view on-line bullying, then that is not okay.
When we as a community are trying to teach the next generation about the importance of diversity and inclusion and we can’t even have civil and open discussions ourselves, then what kind of message are we truly sending?
It’s time that we all take a good look at the mirror and ask, will I be a part of the solution or continue to be a part of the problem?
