Ok, the last 2 post of mine, and several conversations later I've come to some conclusions. Now I'm not going to take credit for these ideas being mine originally, but I will say that I'm going to try to in-brace the thought a bit more.
Back 2 1/2 - 3 years ago a newspaper editor named Greg Little attacked not the policies of, but the personality of one of our council members. In a single instant he made it okay for small town politics to go negative and for us to 'hate' our neighbors based on their politics and/or personalities. The worst part, and I'm just as guilty of this as the next guy, is that we've allowed that to happen! We have allowed the negativity to drive wedges between people to the point we don't want to even talk to some people.
We can't allow that to continue.
Just because we don't agree with someones personal life, or a decision they've made, doesn't make them evil. Nor does it mean that we can't work together for the betterment of our community.
Some of you would think that after my posting on ethics I think Bob Burchard is a two headed monster. I don't. I don't like the current tactics he's using in his attempts for mayor. I wish that all we heard from his campaign were what Bob was going to do for this community, and cut out the bashing of his opponent Bobby Logan.
But last weekend Bob and I worked together with the scouts and other organizations to help clean out the city cemetery. We can agree to disagree and still work together to make our town, that's right yours and my town of Gonzales, a better place for all who live here and visit here. For 3 hours we worked as a team. No punches were thrown. No snide comments were made. No x-ray visions hoping to blow the other one up with their superhero powers were being used. No, didn't happen that way. We came together, we saw a problem, we conquered it together.
Still don't like his political tactics, but love what's he's spearheading in the cemetery. No hatred.
There is not a councilman sitting that I haven't gotten onto about something over the last 2+ years. But that's not personal. It's not because I think they are the evil city monsters trying to rule the world. It's because I felt like in those instances they didn't think things through, they didn't look long term, or they weren't looking at the whole picture. But I get along with most everyone that sits on the council including Bobby Logan whom I've smacked hard over the last 2 years in this blog. Everyone of them INCLUDING the mayor has sit at my dinner table for some talk or another over the years.
Now I'm going to say that part of this demeanor is still perpetuated by our papers. Notice that's papers not paper. Headlines like Judgement Day and similar have to stop. Facebook comments about 'the other paper' have to stop. If you want to make a personal comment then make it under your name, but don't put it on the newpapers website or Facebook page for the public to see the dirty laundry! Leave them under your blog or own personal page and don't link them. Just worry about the news you're going to report next paper, and the real news in our community that our town needs and wants.
Our community has come a long ways over the last 2 years in healing a lot of wounds created after Mr. Little opened Pandora's box. But there is still some festering and ooze leaking out. It's time we finish the healing.
When there's something wrong let's address it. This blog will continue to do that too. It doesn't mean that we won't have issues with JB Wells, finances, or other things in our city, but they need to be about what's going to make our city better, not the personalities.
As one who has crossed that line more than once I'm going to apologize now, and I'm serious when I say I'm going to make every attempt to take the personalities out of this blog and keep it more narrowly approached on the issues.
It is NOT okay to hate your neighbor. I don't care what some editor might of told us 3 years ago.
Who's with me on this?
God Bless
Dennis
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