I blew it on Friday last week. It was after I found out
about the homophobic slurs painted on the rock by the High School; more
specifically, it was after I saw it on the Channel 17 News, and posted on
Facebook. My anger exploded; and in a single thought, I expressed my (at then)
belief that it was a particular group of people that did this act. I had no
proof that they were the ones responsible; I jumped to conclusions. I let
belief trump fact, something of which I am ashamed of doing. Worse yet, I expressed
this knee-jerk belief on Facebook, not the best place to share irrational
beliefs - given that trolls live and thrive there.
I made this reactive assertion because I deeply believe we
are better than this. I care about the school, and the community, and I hate it
when the news channels around here show the ugliness that people seem to do
more often in this county than in others. Perhaps it’s part of their erroneous narrative
that they want to paint us as backward, homophobic, racist boobs; it doesn’t
help when parts of our community give them reason to paint us as such.
We are better than this. We are better than how they portray
us to be. In fact, we are better than we think we are. We just need to be vigilant,
and not be provoked by groups that want to cause havoc, or put their rights
ahead of the community’s good standing. We want to grow this community, not drive
people away, and one good way we can do that, IMHO, is to not scare people away
by fan the flames of hatred and bigotry.
