Dear Boonville: Mr./Mrs. (fill in the blank) is a two-faced, four-eyed bum who lacks any sense of personal responsibility, drives on the wrong side of the road and chews with his/her mouth open.
Pretend that I have just walked downtown and shouted this from a street corner.
You (rightly) are confused and a little upset.
You are miffed because I have disrupted an otherwise beautiful day. Further, I have done so without any warning.
But even more than that, I think, you are upset because I have just engaged in one of the lowest forms of human discourse: The character assault.
Sure, I’ve critiqued Subject A’s road and meal habits. But those are tangential. What I’ve really done here is question Subject A’s truthfulness and worth as a person.
We at the Boonville Daily News appreciate the news tips people provide. And I enjoy casual conversation, both on the job and outside of work.
But I’m struck by the fact that those tips and conversations can sometimes veer away from worthwhile dialogue and target individuals simply because of who they are.
For ease of reference, let’s call this gossip.
I would make myself a liar if I claimed to have never engaged in this malicious practice.
But I would like to issue a reminder — to myself and our community — that just because you’ve done something doesn’t make it OK.
I don’t mean to go all existential on you, but I think there are practical reasons for avoiding gossip — indeed, soundly squashing it.
Let’s look at this from the perspective of a journalist.
A journalist’s role, among others, is to examine whether government officials — as an example — are following established standards.
Standards allow us to live in a civilized society. There are definitions of appropriate and inappropriate behavior. There are stipulations for how a building must be constructed and whether a certain behavior qualifies as a crime.
If I get upset about something, a few things should happen. First of all, it’s not OK to be upset at people simply because they rub you the wrong way.
Instead, I should have a reason for being upset: Maybe someone in my community is stealing candy from kids.
That’s not right, no matter who’s doing it. (Yes, you may laugh.)
Once I have an injustice in mind, I should also be prepared to take steps to address it. Of course, I need to abide by the rules here, too. Maybe the first step is learning how a particular process works, or what standards actually are in place. That will help me understand more about the issue and what I can do to be a part of the solution.
