From Vicki Phillips, PhD, (Clinical Psych, retired)

Monroe

To the Editor: 

One of the things I’ve always loved about Monroe is that the people have always been friendly, neighborly, and help each other and people they don’t know.

The people of Monroe and Green County are grateful to the City Council and the County Board, and the people who do the work, for keeping the infrastructure working so we can go about our lives. Old pipes need to be methodically changed, we love having clean water, sewers are critical, it’s so great that the snow is removed so we can get around and be safe, etc.

This is what elected leaders are charged with doing, to have what and who we need to keep things running well. As soon as people stop doing what is critical and important for area infrastructure and start promoting ideology, DIVISIONS will be made in the area. People will have to “pick sides,” and they will be for or against each other. The nation is acting that way, do we really have to have it in Monroe/Green County?

Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, and some people feel called to be activists, but that is not the job of Council and Board members. People have all kinds of beliefs along a continuum and express them in different ways. It’s the beauty of the Republic. But even if you win a “belief” vote, you cannot legislate them. If you win an ideological vote, do you really want the other half of the town upset? That is not the job, to speak for the rest. It will ruin the beauty of what we have here, and for the businesspeople, dampen the interest in visiting or working here.

Regularly, a benign and very well intended pronouncement by a leadership body has unintended consequences. There is a criminal element that looks for how these things can benefit them, and how they can exploit it. Some people’s opposition is not what you think it is, it is looking at “what happens next.” People’s care for each other will show. Promoting/legislating ideology makes divisions and anger and is not your job.

Once you get people taking sides of issues that are personal, it can bring out meanness and judgmentalism. Even militancy. Let each be judged by their love, not by a vote. If it’s about power and not service, please don’t take these jobs. We would like to keep the area friendly.