How Shall We Respond?

Reflecting on a lengthy life-journey, I readily recall many mentors who laid before me a solid blueprint, a road map if you please for negotiating challenges, which would certainly come along. One of those wise men giving early advise was a Little League baseball manager, Jim Spickard.
 Mr. Spickard was capable of seizing a baseball (game) scenario and making a life-skill application.
Let me offer two examples: I was 12-years old playing in the East St. Louis Jaycee Youth baseball league. I hit a pretty solid line-drive into left-center field. I knew I had a chance for a home run. In my eagerness, I cut the corner rounding first base missing the bag by inches. Moments later I pulled up at third base with what I believed was a stand up triple. Immediately, the opposing manager asked for an appeal at first base for missing the bag and the umpire called me out. I'm sure Mr. Spickard saw the great disappointment in my face but he grabbed me by the shoulders and looking into my eyes he spoke, "Son, in this game and in life there's no shortcuts to success. You gotta touch all the bases." On another ocassion, I was pitching and the opposing team and their fans were especially loud with their heckling and comments. Mr. Spickard walked slowly to the pitcher's mound where I stood and he spoke, "You know nothing is going to happen in this game until you throw the baseball.  But if you lose your poise, you will lose your control and likely lose the game. Do you understand?"
I answered in the affirmative.

I've been fortunate to have excellent family guidance and great sports' mentors. That said, I can honestly state that there was nothing, absolutely nothing I ever did in my life, which served me greater than taking the baseball on a regular basis from age ten to twenty-one and facing the  opponent! It provided confidence and focus on the basketball court and it helped in my personal coaching career. I have always been capable of shutting out the negative, dismissing the critic who second-guesses and ignoring the energy robbing wannabes. The number of times I've lost poise and control since I was 12, can be counted on one hand not using all fingers.

The aforementioned is not intended to be a brag. Not at all. It serves as a hint, a warning if you please that current societal unrest, which looms large has the potential to cause many to lose their poise, lose their control and suffer harm. Currently, many folks have come together riding a feel-good wave of togetherness regarding some obvious acts of police brutality. We must be careful not to overreact and cause crippling harm to the vast majority of good law enforcement needed in every community. Our people must anticipate a counter-protesting insurgency and the necessity for poise and control to be the staples of the day if our nation is to be a winner.