Who can you trust in life? Which people will always do you right? 

Is it a certain people-group? 

No.

 

Sad truth; in every people-group, there are people who will intentionally harm folks in their own people-group. 

I am an older white man and have been cheated, lied to, made fun of, even physically abused by white males. 

But I have also been provided for as a child, mentored, and given opportunities, mostly by white men. 

So, what do we say? 

What do we do? 

How do we figure this out? 

Who do we turn to when we need help? 

We figure out who we can trust, one person at a time. 

We shouldn't assume every person from our own people-group will do us right. 

We shouldn't assume every person from another people-group will do us wrong.

For example, 

The US Supreme Court  Justice, 

male or female, 

that probably cares the most about kids, 

of all the people-colors, 

is Clarence Thomas, pictured above. 

(even if he appears stern, he is stern for the sake of children).

 

I’m sorry, but people from every people-group have a free will, 

which means they can choose to be kind, or choose to be unkind. 

And they can be kind or unkind to others in their own people-group. 

So don’t assume your own people-group is always the best source for help. 

If I have made my point here, let’s go to the next step:

 

Finding people we can trust is kind of like being a judge in a chili-cooking contest. 

We need to sample each chili to see which ones are good. 

And each trustful person is helpful in their own way. 

An older neighbor man might be able to fix a bike,

while an aunt can teach us to bake a pie,

and an older neighbor kid might help us with math.

People are like that. We are each useful for different things at different times. 

One friend might know a lot about buying car insurance, 

while another friend knows which roads are blocked for construction. 

And we need to be useful in return. I have a friend, Larry, who helps me with the photos on this website. 

And he calls me when he needs advice about home repairs. 

Eric J. Rose 

middlegrademysteries.com 

photo: wikipedia.org