I take your point and would like to explain my thinking.
Our school district was facing state receivership when I was elected to the board. After reviewing a pile of documents, I cast my vote in favor of releasing the superintendent and demoting two principals. Almost 200 angry people showed up at the next board meeting and demanded we reverse our decision. These people were so loud and so aggressive the police called for reinforcements.
Naturally, these people were targeting me. I didn’t like it, but I did know the reason why they singled me out.
Our rural community is overwhelmingly conservative, and our school board is elected at large, meaning all voters get to vote for candidates in all seven electoral districts. But only people who live inside each electoral boundary can run for office.
My area is where the majority of our community’s farmworkers, poor people and people of color live. The electoral boundaries are drawn so screwy, there is no doubt that this concentration is intentional. At my kid’s elementary school, kids are bussed in from outlying areas and 97% of our students qualify for the free and reduced lunch program. At our other three elementary schools, less than 2% of students qualify for the program.
While my seat was rock solid, keeping the other three board members together was a different matter. Suffice to say, they begged me to change my vote, even threw out some nasty threats. I refused and reminded them the game was up; they could vote their conscience or get dragged into a public and legal hearing of outright, blatant and illegal-as-hell bigotry. Four board members stuck together through a year-long recall campaign that ended when 52% of the voters, voted to keep us in office.
That was 2007 and the proponents of the recall went bizerk. Bricks were thrown through the front and back windshield of my car. A truck backed into my car and sped away. I received filthy, vile letters, threats and packages with realistic toy guns and knives inside. The police escorted me to and from meetings and stood guard during meetings. Recall petitioners stationed themselves all over town. Just going to the grocery store meant people screaming in my face. It was bad. A letter threatening to light my house on fire was no idle threat. In the middle of the night, fire engines woke us up — our house was on fire. We packed some stuff and moved to an undisclosed location where we stayed, waiting for the recall election to decide my fate.
My point is this. Throughout that long and awful year, I focused my attention on the people who were listening, not the ones who were talking, screaming yelling, protesting and chanting. The people who were listening were sitting at home, reading the newspaper and the on-line comments, watching the TV news and listening to the radio. I personally met with a couple hundred people, answered their questions and talked things through.
In the recall, the people in my area were more than enough to keep me in office and I completed my term of service.
Today, the media is amplifying the loud, the ugly and the nutty so loudly, people can’t hear anyone else. Nonetheless, I still believe that the people who are listening, are the people we need to reach. The listeners are looking for facts and information, they want reasons, answers and solutions.
You reach the listeners in the calm — in places like Medium and comment sections and personal conversations — where the media can’t drown out our voices by talking over us, shouting us down, or blaring loudness in our faces.
It seems counterintuitive, but its not. A great black and white photograph depends on contrast. If the whole photo is grey, the eye must work too hard to see all that is there. But contrast, makes it easy to see what is happening. The dark shadows and crisp white light draws you in, then keeps you in the picture.
I would very much like to know your thoughts.
