Sometimes I sit down to type this column and wonder just exactly what I am trying to accomplish here.
In their infinite generosity, or perhaps foolhardiness, my bosses have entrusted me with a certain amount of real estate in each edition of their paper. In the newspaper business, inches equal money, so the space they provide on this opinion page means they are investing in me.
We are a small town newspaper, which means that however precious the inches allotted to me are, it isn’t a huge megaphone for my ideas. Even so, it is a platform from which to espouse my ideas, share my unique view of the worlds and even gripe a bit. But maybe people don’t read the paper anymore. I could be yelling into the void for all I know, whistling past the graveyard.
None of which means my words don’t matter. If anything, it might make them matter even more— good and bad.
If I say too much, I could alienate readers and advertisers, which are the lifeblood of a small paper. If I say too little, I waste the opportunity I have been given.
As with all things in life, it is a matter of balance, a juggling act, which I think most people go through to one degree or another in every area of life. We have to weigh what we share with ones against what we keep close to the vest. Does the self-validation and emotional release we get from saying such-andsuch a thing outweigh the potential fall out from doing so?
Of course, we also have to judge what it costs us to remain quiet about certain things. In some, perhaps most, instances it does us no harm to hold our tongues. As the saying goes, better to keep quiet and be thought a fool rather than open your mouth and prove it.
Then again, so many evils flourish in this world simply because no one speaks up in the moment. The problem there being that each person has their own definition of good, evil, right, wrong and so many other things. My good might be your evil and vice versa, which is why I usually stick to inoffensive anecdotes about my kids, pop culture and the odd flashback to my tumultuous childhood.
What is the solution then? Everyone just keeps quiet, no one says a word for fear of offending someone else and humanity plods on in the same direction it has for thousands of years? Better the noise and chaos of open argument than that, in my mind at least.
Yet even as I write that, I think of all the times I kept quiet just to maintain the peace: in line at the store, at the table on Thanksgiving, on the phone and so many other places. Was it cowardice or common sense that kept my tongue from responding to the words of another?
Having worked for nearly two decades in customer service prior to getting paid to write, I can tell you this. Customer service workers are exposed to more unsolicited political, religious, philosophical, marital, cultural and every other sort of opinion and advice than can be easily imagined. Ninety nine out of a hundred times, the worker will nod, ignore or even agree just to get you out of the way so they can help the next customer. They are quite literally a captive audience, just as you are mine if you have read this far. The difference being you can stop reading this any time you like. The customer service worker has to feign polite interest.
All of which is just a way of saying, if someone is silent or even if they agree with you, it might be only a matter of politeness— or protecting their paycheck.
