Deliberate acts of kindness

9th July 2018   ·   0 Comments

You have got to give it up for New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis, who recently made the trek to Texas to reach out to the families negatively impacted by the Trump administration’s crackdown on South and Central American refugees seeking harbor and better lives in the USA.

Davis, a former New York Jets player, headed to Texas to reach out to these families that have been criminalized and marginalized by federal officials and the court system, making it clear to these immigrants and their families that there are people in this nation who care about them and want to do whatever they can to help them to build better lives for themselves by providing them with a little dose of hope and love.

To that end, Davis and a friend went out and bought book bags and filled them up with things like toothbrushes, hand soap, toys, coloring books and other items and presented these bags to the refugees and their children.

For me, it wasn’t so much what Demario Davis did. It was the way he did it and the fact that he talked about what he did so matter-of-factly.

He would later explain that he simply saw a chance to reach out to someone and to let them know that they were not alone. A chance to perform some deliberate act of kindness intended to bring a little sunshine into the lives of some people who had been struggling since making the hard decision to step out on their faith and cross the U.S. border.

Davis could have simply written a check or Tweeted about the plight of these refugees but he decided instead to make a human connection by actually going out to meet them and to give them some things that added a little comfort and joy to their lives.

All the while, he had this gigantic smile on his face like a kid on Christmas morning. It was clear that he had gotten as much out of his good deed as those who were on the receiving end.

Still, he didn’t oversell his kind act, telling reporters that while his gesture won’t change anyone’s life, it would change a moment in their lives.

What he didn’t say was that sometimes a moment is all it takes to make a difference and have a major impact on someone’s life.

In this age of athletes behaving badly and being motivated all too often by material trappings and their own egos, it was refreshing to see Demario Davis show the Who Dat Nation and the rest of America who he is before suiting up for his first game as a New Orleans Saint.

I wonder if he knows how bright his light is shining right now.

Can you even imagine what this nation and the world would be like if each of us did what he did?

Anyway, I got a few questions for y’all. Here we go:

• What is the most selfless thing you have ever done for someone you didn’t know?

• Why shouldn’t President Donald Trump have to wait until after mid-term elections to confirm his next Supreme Court nominee after how his GOP pals treated President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee?

• Why are we hearing about so much flooding in Algiers all of a sudden?

• Who is responsible for the New Orleans Police Department facing an $8 million budget deficit?

• Why is it so hard for the Sewerage & Water Board to find employees who know how to read water meters after training them to do so?

• How soon might we see a noticeable rise in the number of Black contractors receiving City of New Orleans contracts?

• How many high-tech jobs that recently were brought to New Orleans will be filled by people who live outside of Orleans Parish?

• How many Black historical sites have you and your family visited this summer?

• Why do so many people act like they can’t see that the Trump administration is systematically dismantling American democracy?

This article originally published in the July 9, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.