It is difficult to find anything but bad news on all the different platforms we use to get an accounting of the day. It seems we are surrounded by conflict on all sides, both globally and in our own neighborhoods. It is enough to make us all take a step back and think more seriously about our own safety, and that of our family. I feel this is essential. It is essential that we educate ourselves and do whatever we reasonably can to protect ourselves, but I worry that this increased caution could, and maybe for some already has, replace the common civility we should maintain. We can be cautious without losing kindness. If we allow fear and suspicion to cloud all of our interactions, I believe we will create more agitation, more hesitance, and more anger. I believe we could inadvertently encourage the atmosphere of fear that often leads to violence, rather than reduce it. True freedom and liberty to go about safely in any place requires a balance of law and order, but also I believe a mutual tolerance.

Many of societies highest ideals have been recorded and saved within documents such as the United States Constitution, The Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. We desire that all be allowed to pursue life, liberty and happiness. We assert that all have rights and that no one’s desires should be allowed to diminish the rights of anyone else to live, believe, or work as they see fit. Such beliefs require a certain amount of mutual toleration. I have heard some say that my right to throw a punch ends where your face begins. We all need freedom in order to act with impunity. We also all need our right to live supported and protected.

These high ideals are difficult to achieve all of the time. Where we as societies draw the lines of rights verses freedoms is difficult. In most of our states you are given a right to defend yourself when life is threated. Other countries often have different laws regarding self defense. It is our duty to lobby for the laws we feel are most just. However, in order to live up to the ideals we find in our founding documents, we have to believe that every life, every person, has worth and has rights.

With this in mind, I believe we can strike a balance between caution and civility. We can use trusted parameters to judge situations as more or less dangerous. When walking a more empty street, I can cross to walk on the other side to avoid a large muscular man that I don’t know. That is not unkind. That is wise. I do not know that person, and I am less able to defend myself were it required here. I am not stopping him from being able to walk down the street. I can make this judgement without actually believing that this person has criminal intent. I simply do it out of best practice. I can also pass a similar such person in a less vulnerable situation and bid them good day. I can hold the door for others. I can do a good turn for a stranger, as long as doing so doesn’t cause me to be more open to attack. I can trust in the goodness of man, while at the same time applying good self protection techniques.

Steve Hartman is a reporter who has spent a great deal of time going across our country collecting “good news stories”. These stories depict people all over going out of their way to affect the lives of others for good. They show people overcoming prejudice, sacrificing for others, and just giving however they can. These stories help to balance my outlook on the world. When we take a moment to step back we can see the world from a broader perspective. We can see its inherent beauty. It can be a dangerous place. It is also a wonderful place. I can look past differences and see what connects us all to each other.

What I am advocating is an educated, prepared population, that doesn’t fall into fear or unkindness. We can believe in the goodness of man while preparing for meeting the worst. We can become and promote that goodness in a society that we hope isn’t completely lost.