I woke up this morning thinking of all the things that are happening around us. Riots around the country, unsettling images in and around the U.S. Capitol, friends fighting with friends, technology companies flexing their strength, and just overall unrest. Should I plan on leaving the country to save myself and family?

Then it came to me, as a country we may be at in difficult place but, we are still a great country. I think the solution to fixing many of the problems is to just start simple. We need to begin by just talking to each other again; not on social media, but face to face. We need to interact with each other and get to know the human side to the person we are talking to. We are still a country that has freedom of speech and we see it every day. Was an application removed from a large corporation’s server banks? Yes, but the CEO of that company is still doing interviews and his message is getting out. The most interesting thing about this country is our ability to recover from difficult challenges and changes.

As a bail bondsman I am personally facing another kind of unrest, I love my job as a bail bondsman and wouldn’t change it for the world. There are organizations out there that to take my profession away and end the careers of thousands and thousands of bondsmen across the U.S., but I still believe we are a strong benefit for people. I don’t hate the organizations that want to end the bonding industry. I feel bad for them. I feel bad because they don’t truly understand the kindness that the majority of our industry has towards the people we help to get out of jail with bail. Again, it comes down to communication and understanding that is failing us now.

We are a country that keeps evolving. This happens when we begin to slip backwards and then a course correction is made where the collective country can breathe easy again. Should I leave the country? The answer is emphatically NO! I think we all need to start talking to each other and stop listening to people we have never met. We need to limit the amount of rhetoric we allow into our lives and increase the human interaction and connections we have. It is not about taking our country back, we already have it, it’s about remembering that the country is made of people with real problems and emotions but not having to interact face to face anymore. Social media and the internet in general have enabled us to stop showing empathy or caring for our fellow Americans, it has created a cold vacuum where insults and verbal attacks are easier because the other person isn’t facing you.

Let’s get out there and meet each other again. Let’s be friends, or at least let’s be respectful again.