 |
I was chatting with a friend from Martins Creek about a news story showing North Carolina was No. 3 in the number of people moving into the state from other ones in 2023. Texas and Florida claimed the top two spots in U-Haul’s annual ranking.
“We left Texas for North Carolina,” he told me. “And when we look at these beautifåul mountains every day – and know people like you – we are home.”
Isn’t that what life’s all about? Finding a place that looks good on the outside is pretty easy, but finding a place that also looks good internally and truly feels like home is a whole ’nother thing. Because that’s where other human beings come into the picture.
I couldn’t find a conclusive study on the subject, but anecdotal evidence suggests there are far fewer “people person” types – you know, the kind of all-around nice folks who seem to smile and get along well with everybody – in the United States today. Instead, our nation’s deep cultural, partisan and religious divides has turned family members against one another and made friends become enemies.
Other people have noticed, too. A recent Pew Research survey of 17 countries in Europe showed they think Americans were most likely to say their society was split among ethnic, partisan, racial and religious lines. So much for being that “shining city on a hill,” as President Ronald Reagan used to call America.
As a journalist, the next line in the survey really got my attention: “The U.S. was also one of five countries in which more than half the public said their fellow citizens can’t agree on basic facts.”
Folks often say things like they wish news broadcaster Walter Cronkite was still around to just give us the facts, but it’s much deeper than that. When Cronkite and his CBS colleagues were informing the world at 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, the ABC and NBC news teams were pretty much reporting the exact same things. Emphasis may have been placed on different items, but there was little argument over what constituted the most important news of the day.
The news world couldn’t be any different today. Since Fox News has proven that you can make a lot more money picking one side and only appealing to them, more cable news stations, then internet media startups, have done likewise, forgoing any semblance of reporting the truth in favor of always being “right.” As a result, it can be challenging just to determine just what the basic information is in any given situation.
Kellyanne Conway, a former advisor for President Donald Trump, used the phrase “alternative facts” to describe this in 2017. At the time, she was laughed at – and rightfully so, as the facts should be the facts, period – but the reality is a fair chunk of our country believes “the other side” is lying to them, even when there’s ample evidence (or lack thereof) to back up whatever is being discussed.
Like my friend, what I enjoy most about Cherokee County is how many people out there are really trying to make our home a better place to live and work – for everyone. I see a bunch of folks like that every month or two as part of an informal interagency group that’s working on all-encompassing solutions to complicated problems, like homelessness.
This group includes government agencies, like the Department of Social Services, employment services and law enforcement; nonprofits, like Four Square Community Action, Reach of Cherokee & Graham Counties and HAVEN Children’s Advocacy Center; agencies that serve addiction, health care and mental health needs; representatives of the real estate industry; and much more. What I appreciate the most about these folks is they are trying to look beyond perceptions (and common misperceptions) in an effort to get to the real issues and find solutions that actually work.
That’s exactly what we must do in order to come together as a people – look beyond the email insults and clever memes and onto the common ground we do share. One side is never always right, and one side is never always wrong – the truth is usually found somewhere in the middle, where real healing could begin.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. Call him at 828-837-5122 or email dbrown@cherokeescout.com.