Editor’s Note: This is NOT about the never-ending discussion about trash/recycling/burning/big blue containers, but it could be.
So, you decide you’ve had it with the charmed living that Jefferson City offers and you pack your bags and move to a bustling city in the southeast part of the country. Life is good there, but you feel strangely compelled to fire off a letter to the editor of your former hometown. In the letter you tell all the readers what a terrible place Jefferson City is and you are, in general, shrill and mean spirited. What happens next? The good folks of JCMO take umbrage and fire back with some pithy words of advice — some nice, some more cantankerous — to the former resident.
This happened recently. The whole sordid scene was played out in black and white courier type for all to read. On the same editorial pages were those bashing the left or the right; people shaking their fists at taxes, the president, health care, female presidential candidates; people using scripture for their various means; and, all-in-all, confirming Mark Twain’s views of those of us who walk upright and have opposable thumbs. (Editor’s note: Twain felt we were a fairly miserable lot.)
On the other side of the howls and acrimony is a little “good” uprising — a movement afoot that sings the praises of good behavior and common decency. Folks involved in Cole Country Characterplus are trying to impress upon our children (and their elders) that we need to appeal to our better angels. We can be good. We can treat each other respectfully, even if we disagree on the issues of the day. There’s hope yet. We should not only applaud the Characterplus initiative, we should support it and join it. Many times the comment has been made, “It’s good for these kids to learn better manners – to show a little character,” but unless the adults model it on a regular basis, how can we expect the kids to learn it?
This blog is not a shot at the media. The media is, more or less, a reflection of who we are. We want to argue. We want to see figurative punches thrown on the editorial pages (or real ones on the 6 o’clock news), we watch Snokie or Snoogy or whatever her name is on Jersey Shore to see what shenanigans she and her poorly behaved ilk are up to. There’s a certain amount of vicarious fun there, I suppose. But at the end of the day, we need to look at ourselves in the mirror (or in the faces of our children) and decide what kind of world we want to make for ourselves.
From my vantage point, most of us who dwell here in mid-Missouri are making a good faith effort to create a welcoming and vibrant community. We tend to care about our families and our schools and, though we stumble now and then, there is a sense of goodness that generally prevails. I would ask, though, that we all make a better effort to treat each other decently. One does not have to belong to the Characterplus program to display good character.
–Guest blogger, David Luther
