In 1999 when we started a local newspaper we laughed like hyenas, loud and uncontrollably. In five years, we were mentioned on Jay Leno three or four times and Aaron Brown of CNN nodded to us at least twice. We assumed that journalism was ideally a combination of facts and mirth.
We had Who Reads the Citizen on the back page – Willie Nelson said, “hold my joint,” Garrison Keillor grinned with the Camptown Ladies, and Ray Charles was backstage at the Aud reading our paper because we had our front page printed in Braille so he could.
We were intrigued that animals defined us better than humans did. News was about being the watch dog. We reported on fish out of water, flies in the ointment, pigs in a poke, busy bees, black sheep, cold turkey, dark horses, kangaroo court, lame ducks, elephants in the room and wild goose chases.
That was just the city beat.
We didn’t exactly grow into maturity, but we were full of thought. We realized how serious news was – women beat up men who beat up women. Arsonists burned their own buildings. Elected officials stole information. Senators and pastors had affairs, money got lost on its way to the bank, and lies infected, or affected, people who had no idea what they had done.
Financial tradeoffs were huge and changed more than our landscape. Eureka Springs started being open in winter so we could make more money and still get away with not providing enough affordable housing.
The powers that be enjoyed dealing with human transgressions muscularly and publicly rather than civilly. Some people were run out of town, some were put in the crossbar hotel for a few months, some got away with murder.
Our country was also going through humiliating episodes – the World Trade Center was reduced to rubble, killing about one-fourth the number of people as the Trail of Tears forced relocation march in the 1830s.
But in one response, we bombed civilians who had nothing to do with, and were probably unaware of, the loss of life on Sept. 11, 2001; in the other Andrew Jackson’s picture was put on the $20 bill.
It’s our tendency to blame others when we think we’re going to get in trouble, or blame others to show we are at least participating. Crazy, yes, but we’re good at it.
It’s in our best interest to stop piling shame on those who have hurt us. Listen to what they have to say. Invite them to the meeting, the office, the café. Let them defend themselves. How many of us have sent a text with lazy punctuation or indecorous spelling that totally changed what we meant? Ask them about context. Isn’t it okay to tell someone that someone else makes us nuts? We do it to our presidents and always have.
Are we making a big deal out of hurt feelings? Are humiliation and firing the best we’ve got? That says more about us than about the culprit.
In animal terms, maybe we should either hold our horses or get off our high horse. Good people know wounding words but write them anyway, despite knowing that doing the right thing is the right thing to do.
Being undisciplined is willful but it’s not monstrous.
This is one of the wisest things I’ve read in a long time. Many thanks for speaking with both brain and heart.