“A government of the people, a democracy, has room for peaceful civil disobedience — a practice that appeals to the humanity and sense of justice of the opposition (not defined as the ‘enemy’) and insists that we do all, in fact, belong to the beloved community.” — Diane Kalen-Sukra, “Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What to Do About It”

Concerning news this week out of Minneapolis, where retailer Target keeps its headquarters and where Target officials say they’re pulling some LGBTQ merchandise off their shelves nationwide out of concern for their employees’ safety.

According to a story in the Washington Post, Target received “threats imperiling the safety of its staff” after the store began promoting merchandise celebrating Pride Month, which happens in June.

Among the items promoted at Target’s website are rainbow shirts, pint glasses featuring the words “Cheers Queers,” a children’s book about pronouns, and “tuck-friendly” bathing suits for adults, though online commenters falsely claimed the store sold “tuck-friendly” children’s suits, too.

“Tuck-friendly” means what it sounds like.

Online dissenters also have taken issue, according to the Post, with Target’s selling of clothes by Abprallen, a designer whose line includes a shirt that reads “Satan respects pronouns,” though that phrase does not appear on Target merchandise. Abprallen clothes sold at Target include a shirt that features a snake with the phrase, “Cure transphobia, not trans people.”

According to the Post, angry customers have tipped over displays, confronted Target employees, and made threatening videos from inside Target stores.

That should never happen.

You want to boycott a store? Do it. Want to encourage others to boycott? Go for it. You want to protest outside of a store? Make it happen. Launch a social media campaign? Please do.

But threats of violence have no place in a working society. No one should be made to feel unsafe.

Full stop.

Yet, time and time again, it seems violence has taken root in what should be civil discourse.

The long list of those threatened for doing their jobs or doing what they believe is right include election workers, librarians, school board members, business owners, prosecutors, and journalists, among others.

Antifa and Black Lives Matter sympathizers burn buildings and the MAGA crowd attacked the U.S. Capitol.

We’re going to war with ourselves, and that’s causing nothing but harm for everyone involved.

Violence or threats of violence don’t soften positions. They harden them. They don’t lessen divides. They widen them. And they don’t solve problems. They create problems.

I don’t know how we reached this point. Hardened political discourse by our elected leaders is part of it. Social media’s certainly part of it. The rise of misinformation and disinformation and conspiracy theories shares some of the blame.

And, as I’ve written about before, today’s issues — climate change, gun violence and gun rights, election integrity, etc. — have severe consequences, which tends to bring out severe reactions.

But we have to find a way to end the violence.

We have to recognize that conversations are more powerful than confrontations. That empathy is more meaningful than enmity. That civil discourse brings about more lasting and real change than uncivil barbarism.

Maybe violence got Target to take down some of its Pride Month merchandise, but not all of it. And I guarantee many people who read that story in the Post or elsewhere went out and bought as much of that merchandise as they could just to counter the violence.

And that violence certainly didn’t make LGBTQ people go away.

Nor did it put Abprallen out of business.

All it did was make some people afraid and others hateful of those violent people.

Hate begets hate.

I also don’t know how we calm things down, but we must.

More civil discourse by our elected leaders could help. Staying off or at least taking more frequent pauses from social media could help, too. So would educating ourselves about how to spot misinformation and disinformation and how to track down reliable sources.

Violence-makers should be prosecuted, but I don’t think we can prosecute our way out of this mess.

I believe God would help. More prayer and reflection and finding a good church community can inspire peace.

Ultimately, we just have to take responsibility for our own actions. We have to follow that old rule our elementary school teachers taught us about pausing and thinking before we speak or act. Count to 10. Take deep breaths. Think about what we want to accomplish and what really would get that done.

Protest? Yes. Advocate? Yes. Vote? Absolutely. Maybe even run for office, yourself.

But let’s make the violence and the threats stop.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.