Let's Normalize Common Sense

 People. We need to start a grassroots campaign for making common sense common. As the tech-smart folks say, let's make that trend!

I've come up with a basic platform. Feel free to add to it, but here goes:

• Let's start acting our ages. Tweens, enjoy being too young to be adults. Stop worrying about developing your online persona and start worrying about developing a solid personality.  Enjoy not having to worry about sex and drama and trends. Enjoy being able to giggle, be silly and be kids.
• Spend more actual face time with each other. Families and friends: pick up the phone and call each other. I like to get my news personalized and direct to me - not with every person on your social media "friend" or "family" list. Sometimes, I just like to hear your voice, tell you a secret, and share a laugh. Sometimes I want to really actually connect just one on one.
• Let's start writing letters again. On paper. I miss being able to retrieve letters from that one friend or "special someone". I miss having that stash of old love letters or birthday cards. I miss the very personal touch and knowing that someone took the time to sit down and write me a letter I could keep and hold after they are gone.
• Let's bring back 2-parent families. I'm not saying that single parenting is bad, I'm saying that, when possible and healthy, 2 parents are generally better. Even if those parents are separated or never were in a relationship, both mom and dad can be involved. And, let's include the grand and the aunties and uncles. Let's include trustworthy friends. Raising children is a big job for 2 people, let alone for one person. (I come from a "broken" home but I had both parents involved in my life and I had extended family to teach and help raise me.)
• Let's bring back family and/or friend dinners. Doesn't anyone else miss that one day when a special group gets together at one home or in a backyard or park? That day when it's just "us" having a meal and watching the kids run around together. Maybe you will have a night when it's just family and another when it's just friends? Maybe you can have a couple's night or a single friends' night?
• Let's bring back respect. Respect for those older and wiser than yourself. Respect for each other as human beings. 
• Speaking of respect, let's bring back self-respect. Respect yourselves enough to not objectify your own bodies. Respect yourself enough that others will also respect you. Respect yourself enough to be respectful toward others. 
• And even more on respect: let's get back to respecting public places. Respect enough not to curse and talk loud and foolishly. Respect enough not to litter and destroy places that others would like to enjoy. Respect enough to be civil in public even to those you don't agree with or like. 
• Let's bring back graciousness. Be polite and courteous. Be helpful when you can. Look out for the other person who might need looking out for. Let's forget the "girl code" and "bro code" and have the same care and concern for each other no matter your gender.
• Let's stop stereotyping and generalizing each other. Not all men or women or kids or blacks or white, etc are ~fill-in-the-blank~. Even when something is generally true, it's not universally true. People are all individual people. Not all people of a certain gender, generation, or race are the same as the worst person of that gender, generation, or race that you ever met.
• Let's bring back useful education - and not just for children. Let's bring back teaching how to do basic math and understand basic science and geography. Let's make it normal to pursue education outside the classrooms - for all ages. In this day and age, most of us have a wealth of resources to learn or re-learn basic classroom and/or life skills. Just because most of us have access to devices that multitask as maps, calculators, and phonebooks, let's not lose the ability to function without them. 
• Let's bring back holding politicians and other public figures accountable for good character.  Let's bring back scorn for blatant lying and moral failures. Let's stop labeling rudeness as being "brave" and "blunt". Let's stop making it admirable to be horrible. 
• Let's bring back civility in politics and public debate. Let's not normalize (any further) being nasty to each other in public forums.
• Let's bring back respect for the actual truth. Let's normalize having "alternative truth/facts" and everyone having an individual truth. There is such a thing as true and false. Everything else - your truth, my truth, etc. - is an opinion, theory, or individual belief.

Am I just being naive? Maybe. My parents used the saying about not being able to unring a bell. I get that. However, can we please muffle the echo before it destroys everything that is halfway decent about society?

Minus the racism and religious bias, I know why each generation longs for "the old days". Every generation has horrible social scars and embarrassing events. However, in spite of all the "progress" it seems that with each passing year, we are getting worse in more areas than we improve. 

(By the way, I am going to start with myself for everything on this list. For example, if I ever lost access to my phone, I wouldn't be able to provide a phone number for a kidnapper to call in a ransom demand. Not that I would have a ransom fund because I can almost no longer do simple math in my head when dealing with my budget. I was never good at math but I once was proud of my grammar and spelling prowess. Today, I rely on Grammarly and my phone's auto-correct. That's just sad.)

Peace

--Free

P.S.: I know that some parts of this post might be offensive to some. I hope that's not the case. I'm not trying to hurt or offend anyone. I am just doing some wishful thinking.