Opinion: ‘You’re trash’ and other delights from my in-box
Now is the summer of our discontent.
The Wichita area’s COVID-19 indicators are trending downward, thank goodness, but it seems as if our ire is rising. Tempers flaring. Animosity reaching a peak.
And it ain’t pretty.
Last week, I wrote about seven-plus hours of public comment during the Wichita City Council meeting, during which 120 people urged the council to lift its mask mandate and abandon a strategy that has lessened the spread of the coronavirus in our community.
The column sparked heated discussion and many dissenting calls, emails and comments on social media — all of which we welcome as part The Eagle’s opinion page mission.
And then there were these private messages:
“I just wanted to let you know that you’re trash.”
“Don’t pat your back. You are an embarrassment.”
“Typical over educated idiot!”
And worse. This being a family newspaper, I won’t share all the colorful correspondence I received — although I did post screenshots of some messages on my personal Facebook page.
About a month ago, Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruse got a vulgar email in her inbox — hers began with the delightfully ironic, “Your an idiot” — which she also shared on social media. That led to an effort to boycott a Wichita restaurant as payback to the man who sent the email. (He said a friend did it.)
This week, my colleague Denise Neil fielded similar hate mail and online comments for a story she reported about politically-charged protests of local businesses.
Members of the media and public officials, no matter their political leanings, tend to attract nasty comments. That’s part of the territory, particularly for women.
In 2018, in a special report titled “The cost of reporting while female,” the Columbia Journalism Review chronicled online harassment and threats experienced by numerous reporters, concluding that “Abuse and menace have become a way of life for women in journalism.”
I often quote the tweet from a radio journalist that later was memorialized in embroidery by Hannah Wise, the reporter behind the Instagram account Sew Many Comments:
“Journalism: It’s a tough job with insane pressure and pretty crappy pay. On the other hand, everybody hates you.”
Let me be clear: Disagreement, debate and dissent are worthwhile, and they’re part of a healthy, robust society. They’re certainly part of newspaper opinion forums.
Protests for or against any number of issues — mask mandates, coronavirus shutdowns, Black Lives Matter, school start dates, high school sports cancellations, oil pipelines, drag queen story hours — are understandable, even desirable. It shows that people care and are willing to speak out about things that are important to them.
But there’s a difference between debate and harassment, between passion and hate, between civility and enmity.
When people disagree with news coverage or opinion pieces, or the way elected officials vote on an issue, I enjoy engaging in conversation.
During a recent phone call with a man who disagreed with my take on the North High mascot (I think it should be changed), I invited him to craft a guest commentary or letter to the editor (letters@wichitaeagle.com). Our community is diverse, and we want to reflect a wide variety of viewpoints.
But when comments are hurtful, hateful or threatening, I think it’s OK to reach for the delete button.
It’s been a long, hot, furious summer. And sometimes you just need a break.
