I was inspired to write this blog because not so long ago and throughout the course of my life I find myself constantly being hurt by someone who excuses their actions with "my intentions were never to hurt you." Well, you did hurt me, so what good were your intentions? In fact where were your intentions when you did what you did???
And as a result...
I've been reflecting on not just my own encounters with intentions but infamous encounters that most people are familiar with. So let's take a short time to reflect on some of history's examples of intentions that were not followed up by actions that were in line with those intentions...
During biblical times, there existed intentions...David did not intend to betray Uriah while Uriah was at war fighting for him...however, he still slept with Uriah's wife Bathsheba...and in this case, David's intentions held no value because his actions betrayed Uriah...
The Danziger 7 did not intend to kill 2 people when they rang shots across the Danziger bridge during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina...but two people are dead...two lives are lost...and the Danziger 7 are still here reporting to work as New Orleans Police Department Officers?!? R.I.P Ronald Madison and James Bisette...Intentions?????
In 1995, Bill Clinton did not intend to betray his wife by having an affair with a 21-year old unpaid white house intern named Monica Lewinsky...but he did! And although I do not agree with his personal life having been publicly scruitinized nor do I believe that his affair should have been brought to the grand jury (I mean let's reflect on how many past presidents cheated on their wives and were never forced to undergo such scruitiny)...However, I do believe that this was a humiliating and excruciatingly hurtful situation for Hillary to be subjected to and to spite the fact that none of these consequences were his intentions...his actions were no good
Jayson Blair did not intend to decieve readers by playgiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories in the New York Times...but he did! In this case we have a perfectly talented journalist writing for the New York Times with no logical reason at all to playgiarize...and to spite his intentions he still decieved readers...
Don Imus did not intend to demean the Rutger's Women's Basketball team by describing the members of the team as "nappy headed whores"...but he did! Good intentions will not take away the anger, outrage, and pain brought on by this both racist and sexist comment. And to add insult to injury, Don Imus returned to the radio waves just 8 months later sending the message that this type of behavior is acceptable.
Drunk drivers do not intend to kill people; but in 2007 alone, nearly 13,000 people were killed in alchohol related crashes. Good intentions will not bring these people back to life!
Quite often in life we all have good intentions and do not follow them up with good actions. Perhaps our stories are not as extreme as the aforementioned isolated incidents, however we can learn from these situations and be more careful to follow up good intentions with good actions! I believe that this is a pertinent part of maturation into adulthood. Let us all grow up and stop using our intentions as an excuse to do whatever the hell we want.
So I must ask, what good are intentions?
