Commission Chairman Speaks Out

By JACK BERNARD
Earlier this year at a Team Jasper meeting, a local businessman and civic leader talked about our community…and stated something that needs to be said more often and made a part of all of our lives (me included).

He talked about positively focusing on issues facing our community versus negatively focusing on personalities…or, in the alternative, having our community slowly deteriorate.

In subsequent months, I have often thought about the wisdom of his words. We must all remember that it is a lot easier to throw a rock and break a window than it is to repair one.

A small number of radicals have attacked individuals directly or through innuendo rather than accurately identifying the issues and alternative actions they desire. When these same radicals have been offered positions on committees, they have often either refused to be considered, not attended meetings or resigned because they did not have the patience and dedication to see things through.

Furthermore, they are not content to speak during the 30 minutes at the beginning and the 30 minutes at the end of every BOC meeting reserved for public comment. Instead, they rudely and continuously interrupt your elected representatives to sarcastically complain and push their own narrow and often uninformed views.

Some in Jasper County have also been prone to seeing conspiracies behind every action of every public authority, commission, council or board. Instead of accurately describing events, they take things out of context in order to mislead the public and further their own ends.

In reality the vast majority of individuals serving are doing so with little compensation and no personal gain, simply wanting to create a better quality of life for all of us in Jasper County.

And, having been in office for almost two years, I have come to believe that is true, even for the folks on authorities and the BOC who do not believe or vote exactly the same way as I do. There is a big difference between disagreeing on issues and attacking individuals on a personal level.
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In fact, there are some radical elements in our county that have attacked virtually all current and past public officials with the city, the county and all public authorities, no matter which camp they are in. How likely is it in your mind that absolutely everyone who is in public life in our county is incompetent, self-interested, dictatorial and just plain mean?

The comic strip Doonesbury put it well: “radicals can only survive when fear replaces reason. So they need enemies, real or imagined.” How true. How true.

Along these lines, we should all realize that resorting to character assassination is an unprincipled tactic used only by individuals of weak character with little to contribute other than half-truths and blind vicious hatred.

How many of us have just gone along with these “nagging, complaining naysayers,” staying quiet or making excuses for them, even when we knew that they had personal agendas of their own and often were incorrect and/or misleading in their assertions and verbal assaults on various public figures.

Do we want this to be a county where no one volunteers to do public service because of the continuing attacks on public-spirited citizens?
As Winston Churchill once said: “To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.” We must not let ourselves be misled by those malcontents who have never held office, and never will due to their own weaknesses, yet whine non-stop about our fellow citizens who are working hard to solve problems.

Concentrate instead on helping your government to address the broader issues that face our county and lending a hand through volunteering to serve on committees or giving constructive input to those who are serving.

If we are going to progress, including attracting industry and retail businesses into our community, we need to focus on the major issues facing us and possible solutions. Attracting industry to a rural setting is hard enough without having to deal with the negative perception of our county created by radical groups.

Rather than complain unceasingly about everything that is perceived to be wrong, we need to determine what needs to be done that is “right”… and construct a realistic plan to move in that direction.

That is how we as a community will progress in the new millennium, by setting a clear vision and accomplishing our aims through hard work and positive energy.

We have started along this path and, with the help of many of our fellow dedicated citizens, our county will achieve its potential. It is not going to be easy, but I know we in Jasper County are up to the challenge.