The Bile of Speculation

　
　
The bile of speculation speed through the coarse similes of ruins in what was once beautiful days carrying the victims of words along for the bumpy ride.

We are human, and as humans we are sometimes cold and unfeeling. We are not perfect, and we show these negative qualities far too frequently.

Sadly, we take the rights given us by our forefathers for granted and do not always consider how powerful are the words we so easily use as knives. Does that make us different from a person who literally uses a material knife to harm others? Yes. However, it doesn't make us right nor does it always make the words right. While graves of discontent envelope others, we sit unknowing of the person they are inside and judge them with words. We speculate about them due to their lifestyle, their looks, the vehicle they drive, whether they smoke, drink and how they dress. We do all this conjecturing without really knowing them. Sometimes, the way people carry themselves, the way they act and react says a lot about them, but it doesn't mean they are truly worthy of total disrespect. And those actions do not mean they are trash, dirt bags, druggies, murderers or abusers.

Anytime tragic events encapsulate people with a family member unwillingly gone missing, the family left behind become instant suspects in the eyes of law enforcement. More often than not, they can’t fully vindicate no family member until proof that someone outside the family is a proven suspect, and charged with a crime. This is also what happens when someone abuses or murders a family member. We, the ones looking in from outside, suspect the victim’s family just as law enforcement does. We violate their rights in the name of right to know before law enforcement brings charges against them or some other suspect. We watch their every movement, add emphasis to their every spoken word, every eye movement, questioning them in our minds and searching for some deplorable evil being living inside their souls.

And unfortunately, later, if law enforcement has shown the people demeaned by the public's opinion as nothing more than victims of tragedy, we do not bother feeling guilt or remorse for our words and actions during their heartbreaking days of sorrow. More sadly is the fact that we blame them for our verbal attacks on their character, vindicating our actions as normal human nature because in our minds it was they who showed guilt. When in fact, all they were doing is showing hurt and pain and sorrow over the tragedy that blanketed their life.

Words can push people into shadowy corners cowering in fear, but they can also cause people to hold their heads high and give them strength to endure. I only wish more would aspire to use words to help others have that strength to endure. All families do not have killers and abusers hiding in their closets; they are truly victims of crime, just as, but not as horrific, as the one physically attacked, abused or murdered.