Words and Consequences

If you are a grouch in public, people will avoid you. They will keep their space behind you while in traffic or walking on the sidewalk. They will expect you not to hold the door open for you, so be prepared. A grouch attracts attention and others build their defenses!

A company markets their products and services. Some messages are edgy to attract attention. Other messages are too edgy and create not only attention, but negative attention. The latter may very well repel customers from buying or using your product. Your brand may be damaged. This is a consequence of your marketing message.

Same is true with other behaviors and posting of opinions on Facebook, Linked In, a blog or a letter to the editor of the local newspaper.  You state your thoughts and let the consequences happen as they will. Most people will read or hear your remarks, or totally ignore them. Those who consume them and like them, feel good and smile or nod their head. Those who disagree with your positions will either divert their eyes and skip to another item. Or maybe, just maybe, the person in disagreement will retaliate. There may be a vile response, or anonymous phone calls if they know your number, or if they know you locally, they may act in other ways.

Freedom of speech is free. But not always free from consequences. Words have consequences. Actions have consequences. That is the way humans interact with one another. So if you have something to say that is important to you, say it but be prepared for the reactions.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders wasn’t prepared for being asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia. But she should have been. She speaks for the president of the united states. She offers excuses and lame ones at that for actions taken by the president, the first lady and staffers at the white house. The record is very clear. Much is said and done that is contrary to American values. And then they lie about it all when a hue and cry is sounded.

They lie; we respond. So do historians, journalists and others in the know. And the rest of us listen to those messages and react accordingly. Our speech is free, too. And our actions too, as long as they are done in a legal manner.

The secretary of the Department of Homeland security is heckled out of a restaurant, a restaurant of Hispanic cuisine, and on the heels of her anti-Hispanic actions on the US-Mexican border. What did she expect? A loving smile and embrace? Hardly.

If you are a disagreeable human being, expect to be treated similarly. It may not be the law of the land, but it is the law of human nature.

And decency. Be civil to be treated so.

June 26, 2018