Be Nice? Ha!

These are popping up everywhere.

I think most people would agree that these days, niceness is not all that common. Take those five black cops in Memphis who beat another black man to death for driving recklessly. I'm not suggesting that only black people are not nice; people of all colors are not nice, and by "all colors" I include whites because contrary to today's woke rules, white is definitely a color. Take it from a painter, white is a very important color; when I run out of white I basically have to stop working and drive to the art store to get more. Which is kind of funny, since black and brown people are always referred to as "POC" while whites are not.  

Anyway, about being nice: Too many people are not even a little bit nice. This explains all those mass shootings and random attacks on the streets of big cities and the guy who hit Paul Pelosi in the head with a hammer. A few weeks ago a six-year-old kid shot his teacher. That wasn't very nice, was it? 

Our politicians are horrible, saying all sorts of insulting things about one another to the press. And members of the press are surely not nice, writing despicable, incendiary headlines and fake stories about people, usually celebrities, in order to sell more papers. Hence the crazy amount of lawsuits we hear about all the time.

Having lived there I can say for a fact that Utahns and New Yorkers are almost universally nice while Mainers are generally not. They won't acknowledge you unless you have been formally introduced, forget smiling or waving at a stranger when you're out for a run. And even when they are supposedly a friend, they still behave badly. I won't name names but trust me, it's quite common around these parts to be treated like garbage by someone you have known for 13 years. Like last week when a "friend" called (for a favor) and in passing asked how I was feeling since she knew I had Covid. When I started to answer she cut me off and said, "Don't be a Debby Downer, just say you're fine." 

My point is this: here in Maine, Black Lives Matter signs have been replaced with signs that say Be Nice. They are everywhere, on lawns and city streetcorners and on the side of the road out in the middle of nowhere. It's as if people think sticking up one of those signs is all they have to do; automatically they are nice in God's eyes. Believe me, it doesn't work that way. 

I try to be consistently nice to others -- certainly anyone going through a hard time. I usually send flowers or call or bring food. But I would never, ever put up one of those signs. I'm nice incognito.