Sonya Ruff Jarvis LinkedIn post, November 2020
What are your politics? Please do not answer. This is a rhetorical question. Although I must say, I am seeing more and more LinkedIn posts throwing shade, in all kinds of directions, at every party.
My mother would always say, “If you do not have anything good to say, do not say it at all”. I am sure you have heard that saying along your journey too.
I would like to update that saying to: “If you do not have a positive political post, do not post it”. Please, don’t comment that I am trying to censor anyone’s freedom of speech; and, I am not the LinkedIn police. I am merely stating the obvious.
I am not naive. I have my opinions, too but I share them privately, with friends and family in context; and, also, where I can hear and listen to their responses. I would encourage all those that want to be negative, attacking those who serve our country, to do the same.
I try to post positive, history-making recognition “stuff” or just plain or birthday or anniversary wishes. One of those posts was about the first woman vice president who happens to be part African-American. I thought it was uplifting and not offensive. But, an out of network LinkedIn person replied “make me puke”. Literally written without any conventional grammar reflected. My first thought was, “Why would this post make him want to “puke” as he said”? The photo was not gross, the message was not negative, and I certainly did not use inappropriate language.
While this person had less than 10 followers and no photo or vitae, for that matter, attached to his account; my post undoubtedly offended him. He was not in my network but a contact within my network “shared” the post and the “potential puker” received it. I am not sorry for that, but I am recognizing it because he felt compelled to tell me so. One thing he did not tell me was why the post made him want to puke?
In my eyes, the post applauded and spoke to history for all girls, women, girl-dads and the men in our lives who truly support our ideas, intellect and contribution to this great country of ours.
When I see posts tearing down political figures on either side, it seems so pedestrian considering what the world has endured for the past 18 months with this pandemic. I believe these nasty posts, comments, shares and replies are for shock value. I wonder how many are Bots? How many are truly “real” people trying to sew discord and strife on a professional network site? Who knows? But in any event, it isn’t cool.
I am an old school business professional where your religion, your income and your politics are just not topics for an “anyone” platform. So, the next time you feel compelled to throw shade at a political party on LinkedIn, I encourage you to think about the following quote in the context of this blog.
“Stay positive, all other choices are pointless punishments to your psyche.” ― Joe Peterson, Help Me Live… As I Die, Cancer vs. the Power of Love
Sonya Ruff Jarvis, a life-long marketer, has been a corporate executive, bible study teacher, organizer of events with tens of thousands attendees and now a successful small business owner. And through all of this, Sonya has run the New York City Marathon, survived breast cancer and created an innovative business-to-business customer relationship model. She and her husband live in Connecticut with their daughter and their Havanese dog, Sadie, who completes their family.