Reader Opinion: Acts of kindness

I commend staff and student leaders at Pillager Schools for the positive way they dealt with the tragic school deaths in Florida. Instead of participating in a protest against gun control by walking out of school they came up with 17 random acts of kindness we can display to one another after they read the names of the 17 victims over the intercom and observed a silence. The list of random acts of kindness was published in the Brainerd Dispatch on March 15:

• Lend someone school supplies if needed

• Tutor someone

• Sit with a new person at lunch

• Volunteer in your community

• Send a positive text

• Pay any act of kindness forward

• Ask what you can do to help a teacher

• Pay for someone's meal

• Call your grandparent

• Carry groceries

• Shovel someone's walk or driveway

• Scrape off someone's car

• Help the janitors pick up messes in the hallway

• Tell five people to have a good day

• Write a thank you or sticky note

We can easily transfer positive and kind acts to our families, workplaces and communities. Violence in our society is a concern for all of us and it is up to us to put our energy and resources into positive actions that will do more to improve mental health than gun laws ever will. Are we listening or just reacting and blaming again?

Joan Johnson

Breezy Point