Turning a curse
into a blessing
The apocryphal Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times,” has in recent months buffeted this newspaper like so many constantly changing tariffs in a trumped-up trade war.
Still, a trip last week to a convention of the Michigan Press Association provided not only an expected bit of chaos but also an unexpected bit of insight into why times might be so chaotic.
No, I’m not talking about the Terminal Theorem — that, regardless of destination, you end up having to switch planes by rushing from the farthest gate of one octopus arm of an airport to the farthest gate of a diametrically opposite arm.
And no, I’m not suggesting that people victimized, as our staff has been, by dishonorable doings will forever be beset by people honorably — and flatteringly — wanting to take selfies with us.
What I’m suggesting is it’s never bad to occasionally emerge from tortoise-shell bunkers and poke our heads into other communities to increase our understanding of our own little world.
Our paper often is lauded for having courage to speak truth to power and resilience to survive weaponizing of law enforcement against us. To some, it’s an isolated stain on Marion’s reputation. But when you emerge from your shell, you find that such things — though perhaps not as extreme — happen with alarming regularity elsewhere.
In a COVID-reeling world dominated by the echo chambers of social media and punditry of talk shows pretending to be news programs, everyone seems to want to control all aspects of all messages.
They create their own channels, from Truth Social to On the Corner. They decline to actually talk to reporters and instead want to contribute opinion pieces ghost-written by P.R. or A.I. They hide deliberations, encrypt transmissions, let citizens ask questions but refuse to answer them, release only small portions of records they’re supposed to share freely, and charge outrageous fees or fail to respond in a timely manner when asked to provide more.
Virtually every news organization except those that care more about being loved than contributing to liberty and democracy faces the same challenges. A key reason appears to be a shortage of competent people courageous and community-spirited enough to productively and unselfishly do the hard work of helping run government bodies.
The good news is the public has it within its power to end our not-so-slow progression, both locally and nationally, toward what experts call “competitive authoritarianism” —democratically elected mini-dictators whose first task is always to control the message and to condemn as negative anyone daring to offer a contrary interpretation.
Coming up in the next few weeks will be a hospital board election hidden away at 5 p.m. May 27 in the basement of St. Luke Clinic and filing deadline at noon June 2 for a host of other electable jobs. Fringe elements with personal agendas undoubtedly will be there. Will others in the land of the free and the home of the brave be willing to live up to those monikers and join them?
Last week’s trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan, also opened eyes in other regards. Much as we talk about townsfolk hereabouts being friendly to strangers, you couldn’t go anywhere in Frankenmuth without every last person you encounter seeming to earnestly want to know how your day was going.
Frankenmuth itself is an exemplary small city. Nestled between manufacturing towns like Flint and Saginaw, it has no inherent natural advantages, but it became a major tourist destination largely because the community bought into a shared dream presented by one family that saw a bright future in catering to tourists with German-themed stores and facades and an overabundance of indoor water parks, a welcome commodity in the “thumb” of Michigan, where summer appears for only a blink of an eye while winter seems an endless stare.
Having a shared, solitary goal and determinedly seeing it through doesn’t work everywhere. Dogpatch USA, a failed attempt to do more or less what Branson, Missouri, did fell apart. Yet almost every successful destination community began the way Branson and Frankenmuth did with a laser-focused, singular objective rather than a plan that looks like a Christmas tree with separate gifts for separate groups.
Getting the best and the brightest to once again be willing to assume leadership positions not only prevents the embarrassment of such things as illegal police raids. It also can result in an embarrassment of riches by helping sharpen a community’s focus on establishing a profitable niche for itself.
Share your ideas and listen to others’. Have the courage to put yourself before the community and to cut what isn’t needed so you can achieve broader and longer-lasting goals that are. That’s what makes democracy great again. All it needs is you.
— ERIC MEYER