Nelson: ‘We’re at a pivotal point’

My wife and I made chicken parmesan this weekend and it was delicious. It dirtied up several pans, but it was worth it. We’re making an effort to cook more together this year and the results have been satisfying thus far.

I’m not much of a chicken guy, as I like my beef and pork a little more, however I do enjoy pasta and cheese, so I was willing to give chicken parmesan a try. I’m glad I did and we’ll be making it again.

I think food is a good analogy for about anything. We all have the food we eat and the drink we drink, but I want to interject that I think we need to be careful with how we digest the day’s news headlines.

What I mean is that we’ve had some very weighty news headlines in the last year. Not just at the world or national level, but at the state and local level as well. People are fighting and arguing over about anything these days, let’s be honest. Save for all-out violence and destruction, maybe if it’s channeled in a productive way, heated discussions are a good thing. We’re at a pivotal point, after all.

But I’m concerned that we’ve become to enamored with conflict in our day as we digest the news headlines we’re seeing. I’ve wondered to myself if I was really ready to digest these headlines, and I’ve had to report on them too.

I fear we’re jumping to quickly on bandwagons before thinking about the ramifications of that. How are we reacting to these issues?

I look at events that have happened in the last week. We’re all Americans, and when a group storms the U.S. Capitol, that effects us here too. Sure, there are questions on how it happened or just who brought it on or who did it. President Trump got kicked off of Twitter after it happened, so how does that potentially effect how I’m using social media in the future?

At the state level, one of the many issues lawmakers will be going through during the 2021 legislative session that started Monday is how our work and school cultures have changed because of work-from-home entering the picture. There are lots of ramifications of that we need to look at.

I don’t want to exaggerate at all, but we’re at a pivotal point in our world. I don’t think we should take that fact lightly. We should proceed with that in mind. I hope our lawmakers take that into full consideration as they mull through the issues at hand.