Maybe it’s a function of the age I’ve reached or, I fear more likely, of the age in which we live but I’m experiencing an acute patience shortage when looking at the challenges great and small confronting us as a city, a nation, and if the science is to be believed, as a species.
Too many of us too often, present company included, have our minds already made up so don’t even try to confuse us with facts. As for sources of information, we tend to shop for outlets that confirm our perspective, no matter the issue or its complexity rather than challenge us to think outside our own experiences.
We take comfort in finding our feelings echoed and amplified. As for the feelings of others especially those with whom we disagree? There’s a phrase going around about them, but I won’t use it here even though we’ve all heard it.
We’re all always a bit testy at budget time and we’re always unhappy at the City Council’s decision, no matter what it is. We could decide to repair or replace how we make decisions about spending our money but all we do is talk about making changes without really making any. And then, once again we’re dismayed and angry that we keep reliving the same argument every year.
Despite the anger and unhappiness that service on our City Council seems to generate among so many of our residents, we are fortunate to have interested and talented people who are willing to serve. We need more of them because it's a universal condition across the United States: No one has enough time, and everyone needs help.
If you've ever had children in school, you already know about the PTO parents who were also the band parents who were also the class trip escort parents, and who were the prom chaperones, and that list goes on forever. It's true in municipal government as well. You see the same (too few) people at City Council meetings, who also attend Board of Education meetings, and they are the ones who offer to serve on a citizen committee of some sort or other. We’re lucky to have so many people in the same device.
The rest of us could all pitch in, but some of us get along better with others (I am more of an acquired taste). I get concerned when so much energy is devoted to tearing people down with whom we disagree. I don't have the strength that (anymore) and it's hard for me to pretend that many of the unkind things I hear and read were NEVER said much less to forgive and forget them.
And that’s the heart of the matter: carrying around the grudges and bruised feelings over slights (real and imagined) that keep us from starting again. Sometimes I'm concerned that the long, proud history of New England sometimes gets in our own way of trying new things and walking away from our past. How much of yesterday do we really need to overcome today to have a shot at a tomorrow that is large enough for us and our children?
Look at us right now. Everything we have was created because of choices those before us made, good and bad, whether buildings, businesses, neighborhoods, or families. It’s true we cannot go back but we cannot stand still. We can only go forward, together.
-bill kenny
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