Be Kind

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One of the trends of today that has upset me is the lack of kindness in the world.

Specifically, I see people at my local county leaders' meetings being jerks. And not just jerks, but mean jerks. They talk to my local supervisors as if they are not people, as if they aren't human, instead of public servants who are doing the best they can in a weird world that doesn't function like it did even 10 years ago.

My supervisors make about $8000 a year - maybe $10,000 if you're nominated chairman. None of these people are in it for the money. Yet, I hear people stand up there and say, "My tax dollars are paying for you to be here!" 

Well, no. My vote is why they are there, or at least, one of them. I can't vote but in one of the five districts in the county, the one I live in. So, you only have one representative, but they vote on everything that goes on in the county. If we had at-large voting, I guarantee you we'd have representatives who all came from the southern end of the county, where most of the growth is. And then people would be really mad.

Anyway, for years now - since about 2017, and I don't need to tell anyone what happened then - I've listened to the "public" turn out at meetings and become more and more rancorous. They demean the supervisors. I wouldn't talk to a dog the way some of these people talk to their supervisor. They have "othered" them to the point where I can see the spittle coming out of their mouths in their anger over some emotional topic.

They seldom get upset about anything important, these people. They go to meetings to complain about removing a Confederate monument. That died down, and they started complaining about books in the library, which is the current issue. In between, there have been other smaller concerns, all of them parroting the lines of the major national pushers of idiocy who send these semi-crazy people out to do their dirty work.

It is beyond appalling for someone to address my elected officials as horribly as I have heard these people do. I despised the former president of the United States, but if I had had the misfortune to be introduced to him, I would have called him, "Sir," and said, "Yes, Sir," and perhaps, "I respectfully disagree." 

This is because I would have been honoring the office of the presidency, not the man. And I expect the same at the local level. I expect people to honor the office of an elected official - or even an appointed one - because it is worthy. And what the office stands for is important. The office stands not for that one person, but for the 6,200 people they represent here locally.

I do not expect people to treat my supervisors with disdain and talk down to them. I do not expect to hear them be condescending, arrogant, and profess superiority when I can tell just by listening to them that they haven't a clue what government is about, nor understand what it is they are trying to talk about.

I know what government is about. I am pretty sure I have been to more meetings than any of these people. I have covered government at every level, even federal (though with a local slant). I also paid attention when I was a kid and learned a lot from School House Rock. I know how a Bill is made in Congress. And I know how the law reads in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I know what the supervisors can and can't do here.

When you write about it for 35 years, you figure it out.

The meetings have been so contentious that I wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't get hurt at one of them. 

It's a bad look. It's a bad look for the county as a whole, and it's an incredibly bad look for the people who are whining, moaning, yelling, screaming, and shaking uncontrollably because they are so emotionally invested in something that, in the long term, does not matter. 

If people want to get upset about something, be upset about poverty, greed, climate change. Fuss because people don't support local businesses. We have a small shop closing in the county seat because it can't stay afloat. We have local farmers who are struggling because half the county has had too much rain and the other half hasn't had any. Be upset about that, if you must be upset.

Maybe you should wonder why there isn't a fire and rescue structure in the most populated area of the county and go fuss about that. That is something to be concerned about. Or say something when the supervisors are looking to okay apartments. Not because you don't like apartments, but because we don't have a ladder truck here that would reach the top floor and people will die if there's a fire because it will take 20 minutes to get a truck here from the neighboring county. That's something to be upset about, I think.

Or maybe you should worry about the amount of pollution that the cement plant and the truck manufacturer in Greenfield are both dumping into the air. You and your kids are breathing that crap. I'm breathing that crap. But I don't see you jumping up and down over that.

No. I see you yelling about relocating a statue. Or worrying about some imaginary kid possibly picking up a book you disagree with that contains things your god doesn't condone. That's not worth it. That's just using emotional crap to take up time and to keep people from doing anything beneficial for their community.

Whatever you want to say to your elected official, try saying it with kindness. Try to remember they are people, too. They are not from some other planet. They are your neighbors. I don't agree with them a lot of the time, either.

But I am not going to shriek at them while the spit flows from my face because I don't have control of myself. I am going to politely state my point and move on.

Get a grip, people. Pick better battles.