Speak Up, Jackson County - Whose Lane Is It Anyway?

I’ve heard it before. Maybe we ask too many questions. Maybe we need to stay in our lane and let people do their jobs. But every time I hear that, I wonder the same thing. What exactly is our lane?

Think about what we teach our kids. We teach them that choices have consequences and that they have to take responsibility for what they do. If they mess up, we don’t help them by making excuses for everything or saying poor pitiful you every time something goes wrong. At some point we tell them to own their part, learn from it and do better.

Why would that be any different for us as adults?

I don’t look at accountability as trying to get somebody in trouble. If you’re responsible for something, people are going to have questions from time to time. That goes for elected officials, department heads and employees, but it goes for the rest of us too.

If I put something on Speak Up and I have it wrong, tell me. I may explain why I said it, or I may find out I was wrong and need to correct it. I’ve had to do that before. I’d rather somebody show me than keep repeating something that isn’t right.

I look at questions about county government the same way. Asking what something cost doesn’t mean we’re accusing somebody of stealing. Asking why a road isn’t finished doesn’t mean we’re against the road department. Sometimes we ask a question and find out there’s a perfectly good explanation. Good. Now we know more than we did before.

We also have to be fair about it. We can’t question every little thing somebody does because we don’t like them and then look the other way when it’s somebody we do like. If somebody inherited a mess, that matters. If they’re working to fix it, give them credit. If something still isn’t getting done, we ought to be able to ask about that too.

Citizens have a part in this as well. We can show up, pay attention, learn how things work and ask questions before jumping to conclusions. We can’t sit back, blame somebody else for everything wrong with Jackson County and expect somebody else to fix every problem.

Maybe that’s where the lesson we teach our kids comes back around. Speak up, but listen too. If you’re wrong, admit it. If somebody else is wrong, you don’t have to tear them down to say so. And when something is your responsibility, own it.

I don’t believe our lane as citizens is to sit quietly and just accept whatever we’re told. This is our home too. We pay taxes here, raise our families here and live with the decisions that are made here. Paying attention is our lane. Asking questions is our lane. Helping when we can is our lane too.

I’m not asking anybody to do something I shouldn’t be willing to do myself. Hold me accountable too.

That’s how we teach our kids responsibility. Maybe us grown folks need the reminder once in a while ourselves.

Until next week, God bless, and remember: If we want better, we have to do better. Speak up, stay involved, and never stop caring about Jackson County.

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Questions or topics: speakupjcky@outlook.com