Moving Forward

Beware the narrative lane changes, and have the courage to call it out. 
Moving forward, there will be a lot of attempts when it comes to arguments about gun control & mental health and it is important to see them and call them out. Catch these following lane changes that others will try to make, don’t leave yours to chase them, stay in your lane & call them back to it. 
First of all remember to stay in the “and”, resist the temptation to join the “or”. 
When we move into the ‘or’, we are forced into polarization. The ‘or’ approach leads us to nowhere, it is what we have been doing for years. 
Yes, you are tired of people believing that ‘thoughts and prayers’ are enough. But the memes of it being crossed out is an “or” approach. You can send ‘thoughts and prayers’ AND demand change. 
“Criminals will always find a way to get guns, regulating them won’t stop them.” 
Response: “No one is arguing that criminals can obtain illegal guns. Is your argument that we should make it easy for them to obtain them legally?” 
“Guns are just a tool, if we ban them, they will just find another way to kill.”
Response: “No one is talking about banning all guns. Can you clarify where you heard that making guns illegal is being considered?” 
“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. If they can’t use a gun, they will use something like a car- are we going to ban cars now?” 
Response: “Yes, people have used other means to enact terror. We can’t prevent all tragedies. But currently we do regulate those other means, such as driving. 
Is your point that we should continue to make mass killing of people easiest to do with guns? Is your point that we should not do what we can to make it more difficult to kill people with guns and we should not put in place a system to catch those buying guns for the wrong reasons?” 
“This is a case of mental illness not a gun control issue.”
Response: “Should this 18yr old have been able to buy 2 guns if his actions were due to his mental instability? How do we fund more mental health services?”
Check if what is being said is fact or judgment, have the courage to call it out and the conviction to not get distracted. 
We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, other countries have taken different approaches to this issue and had success. So instead of doubling down, what would happen if we simply asked the question, “what if we were wrong?”, and try a different approach. 
“What if I’m wrong?” needs to be our default when it comes to all issues.  What if there is a better way? If you can’t allow that to be a possibility, then that is a problem.

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About Becky

Becky Schmooke (pronounced “Smoke”) is a Mindful Leadership Consultant and Speaker, focused on providing action based mindfulness and leadership training to organizations and businesses who are ready to do things differently.

Becky’s Mindful Kitchen, is located outside of Iowa City, and provides truly unique team building and leadership retreats, strategic planning workshops, private parties and classes and weekly summer camps for kids. The commercial teaching kitchen, treehouse, archery range, bush craft skills, first aid training, wood fired pizza oven, chickens, baby goats and timber adventure playground provides endless opportunities for hands on activities.

As a mom to three girls, 60 chickens, 4 goats, 2 dogs and a fire fighter’s wife- life is never boring and provides Becky with endless stories which she uses to illustrate her approach to mindfulness in daily posts on social media.

In all that she does, Becky has one goal, to build confidence in others to take action to live their best life, not just pass time.

Follow For Daily Posts and Baby Goat Videos!

About Becky

In all that she does, Becky has one goal, to build confidence in others to take action to live their best life, not just pass time.