Most of the time I love writing columns. This isn’t one of those times.
You don’t need me to tell you these are tough times in Watonga. We are a laughingstock around the nation, a poster child for what the rest of the world imagines Redneck Oklahoma to look like.
Our good law enforcement is shamed by the bad, and the city has been basically rendered impotent by a council that hogtied the city manager, then quit.
I get it. I’d probably have quit long ago. I don’t hold it against them for leaving because, frankly, there is no pleasing some people in this town and they got tired of dealing with the hogwash. Feel free to substitute another word here. You know the one.
There are legitimate complaints. The residents didn’t – maybe still don’t – feel like they were being heard. And for those complaints to go unaddressed was a mistake. The city should have answered its citizens.
But there are two sides to every story. Some of those complaints are from folks who don’t want change, any change. Others are plain rabble rousers who want to stir the pot of dissention and see what happens. They don’t want change, they want to see how big a storm they can create.
My advice is if you don’t like change, examine why the change was made. It is probable that the old way of doing things just wasn’t going to work anymore. It was outdated, illegal or too expensive to be sustainable.
Those who would stir the pot, use your energy to change what you perceive as the problem. That’s the issue I have with the most outspoken among the keyboard warriors.
They have great ability to point out what they see as a problem, but either no suggestion as to how to fix it, or a ludicrous idea. A knee-jerk reaction.
What if instead there were a well-thought-out plan, with defined goals and a roadmap of how to achieve those goals?
Take for example the community policing policy presented last week to the city council. The police department of Sand Springs came up with it, based on findings from the Department of Justice after the Ferguson, Missouri incident.
Sand Springs PD took the outline, customized it to their department, and brought it to their city council. That city council adopted it, and it works.
There is no reason that any citizen with a reasonable issue cannot come up with a reasonable solution that is planned and achievable.
Take all that energy being spent on spewing anger and use it for solutions. That anger does no one any good and it is stopping the progress the town has made dead in its tracks.