Kindness, empathy is doing our part during COVID

“Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” — Nobel Peace Prize winner, Albert Schweitzer.

We need more kindness in today’s world. The pandemic has been scary and frustrating, causing arguments and divides among family and friends. There have been beautiful moments of unity, and unbelievable moments of division, but I believe there’s more that unites us, than divides us.

Scientists and medical professionals have been working diligently to figure out how best to protect humanity. We must be patient and let them do their jobs, trusting in their expertise and knowledge.

Our doctors, nurses, EMTs and other medical professionals need our help. We have the luxury of turning off our TVs and shutting out the horrors in the world we want to avoid. These professionals don’t have that luxury, and few probably want it because their passion is helping their fellow man no matter the cost. Like fire fighters, police officers and soldiers, they run toward the danger - into the fire, into the battle — to protect the rest of us, trying to protect us from life’s atrocities, like COVID-19. We can help them by heeding their medical guidance.

The easiest way to help our medical professionals and neighbors is to simply show some basic human kindness by putting the health and safety of others above our own personal beliefs. No one would intentionally want to hurt or kill others around them, but when you don’t wear a mask, you could unknowingly be doing just that.     

Wearing a mask is part of medical professionals’ daily jobs and they do it without complaint because it ensures their safety and, most importantly, that of their patients. If it was ineffective, it wouldn’t be a common practice in the profession.

Somehow wearing a mask has become a political and divisive issue. Masking is being encouraged by governments all across the world to protect public health, not to violate our freedoms. Insinuating that asking people to do this simple task to protect public health is a violation of freedom is misguided. This goes beyond our governments, our religion or anything else — this is the basic preservation of humanity. COVID doesn’t care what party you belong to, which country you live in or what religion you follow. It kills without prejudice. As humanity, we must fight it without letting our differences and beliefs divide us.     

Let’s change the narrative and focus on being kind and empathetic to our neighbors. Let’s wear a mask and do our part to protect each other. COVID-19 has killed more than 4.5 million worldwide, including around 640,000 Americans and 9,200 Oklahomans. My hope is that we can work together, taking simple steps, like wearing a mask, to help stop its spread before any more innocent lives are lost.

Senator Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, serves as minority whip and represents Senate District 40.