{"id":28247,"date":"2023-08-20T10:04:16","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T14:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=28247"},"modified":"2023-08-20T10:04:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T14:04:17","slug":"are-we-letting-a-few-jerks-spoil-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=28247","title":{"rendered":"Are we letting a few jerks spoil everything?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em> @mikemcgannpa<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Unless you\u2019ve drunk so much Kool-Aid that you\u2019ve wet your pants, you know Donald J. Trump is a jerk. Based on polling, a few of you might even see that a plus, but most of us do not.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s mean-spirited, cruel, self-obsessed and not particularly bright.<\/p>\n

And aside from the fact that this person was President and leads one of our two political parties, that normally wouldn\u2019t be a problem. Trump has been a jerk for decades without having a widespread impact, even when hosting a TV show.<\/p>\n

Until 2016, the 1 in 10 of us who were insufferable jerks usually did their best to hide it, fearing shunning and condemnation. Yes, there were always jerks – the guy in the restaurant yelling at the waitstaff, the woman in the supermarket blocking an aisle, oblivious to others and so on, but they were generally few and far between in their acting out.<\/p>\n

Now, it feels like they\u2019re everywhere \u2014 you see the literal insanity on our roads (and resulting spike in traffic deaths), the people who talk through movies and get huffy when you suggest they be quieter, to minor arguments turning into fatal events when someone shoots someone else. When you hear about pastors saying parishioners find Jesus “too woke” you know something strange is going on.<\/p>\n

And you should see the \u201clove notes\u201d we get \u2014 most are barely intelligible screeds of seemingly uncontrolled anger because me or one of my writers hold an opinion with which they disagree. For the record \u2014 we always welcome thoughtful, intelligent criticism (and always publish them when they come in) because like everyone else, our opinions aren\u2019t always right. But some of these people claim we shouldn\u2019t be allowed to express our opinions at all \u2014 which is a pretty anti-American stance to take. Honestly, such things just make us want to write more, not less.<\/p>\n

Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of American life \u2014 and instead of a counter argument, we get threats, angry invective and ad hominem attacks. Even as I write, I’m told there are efforts in the Oxford Area School District to ban books — not because they are obscene but because a few people disagree with their subject matter, despite all of these books being vetted by education experts.<\/p>\n

Now, again, this is nothing like a majority of people here. Most folks in Chester County are moderate, highly-educated and nice, community oriented people. But while most folks go about their business, a few angry voices make the most noise.<\/p>\n

It used to be that when people acted like an over sugared toddler in public, they\u2019d be shunned by the larger community. But now, we\u2019re seeing a permission structure for people to act like uncivilized thugs.<\/p>\n

We used to be better than that.<\/p>\n

We used to value compassion.<\/p>\n

We used to value kindness.<\/p>\n

We used to value tolerance.<\/p>\n

I think the vast majority of us still do.<\/p>\n

But now there are so many more loud, angry voices embracing hate. Hate against people of different religions, different skin colors, different political outlooks and yes, even different genders (in this case, I speak of men who disparage women and their rights to self-determination as equals in our society).<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong: I think everyone is entitled to their opinions. But this explosion of hate is a cancer on our society.<\/p>\n

We are better than that.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Speaking of hatred, we\u2019re told about a woman \u2014 who refused to identify herself \u2014 who barged into local businesses in Valley Township a couple of weeks back demanding that these businesses oppose a proposed shelter for the homeless.<\/p>\n

Wrongly \u2014 at a time when homelessness is increasing in the county, in part because of shrinking affordable housing \u2014 this woman claims every one of these homeless people are drug addicts or sex offenders with zero evidence, just hatred.<\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t consider the person bankrupted by a medical emergency, or someone who lost their job and home due to the pandemic. There are a decent percentage of people in this county who are one financial disaster from being homeless. We\u2019ve seen homelessness grow year over year in the county by 8%. It\u2019s a real issue and anything that helps these folks seems like a positive for the community at large.<\/p>\n

Instead of compassion \u2014 or making helpful suggestions to improve the proposal to make it work better for the community as a whole \u2014 we see hateful descriptions of people, most of whom are just trying to get by. <\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from really needing to focus on affordable housing and child care \u2014 two issues really hurting a major segment of our local population (and by extension, the local businesses that can\u2019t find good employees in part because of these issues) \u2014 can\u2019t we reach back and find some level of kindness, some level of compassion for our fellow man? Without a lot of good fortune \u2014 and the support of the greater community \u2014 who is to say that any number of us might find ourselves homeless, hungry and without hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere, but by the grace of God\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

We are better people than that.<\/p>\n

We are a better community than that.<\/p>\n

I know we can show that by drowning out the voices of hate with love, support and compassion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa Unless you\u2019ve drunk so much Kool-Aid that you\u2019ve wet your pants, you know Donald J. Trump is a jerk. Based on polling, a few of you might even see that a plus, but most of us do not. He\u2019s mean-spirited, cruel, self-obsessed and not particularly bright. And aside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9038,4053,3162,5802,4219,11248,11247,6854],"class_list":["post-28247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-compassion","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-featured","tag-homeless-shelter","tag-jerk","tag-kindness","tag-tyranny-of-the-minority","tag-valley-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28248,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28247\/revisions\/28248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}