“The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for..."
- Ernest Hemingway
"So is Bourbon County..."
- Nick Graham
I didn't go to Monday night's Bourbon County Commission Meeting. I was in town - I had back to back meetings that lasted right up until it was time for the meeting to begin - but as time drew closer to 5:30, a single thought kept going through my head.
"I just can't do it."
That is a problematic feeling to have when you've recently left a safe, secure, and well-paying day job to launch a website that covers local news for a county of 11,000 people, and yet...
I. Just. Couldn't. Do. It.
By the time anybody reads this, the Monitor will be three weeks old, and the response has been incredibly gratifying. The actual work, however, has often been a bummer. I would go so far as to say depressing.
I took the leap of launching the Monitor because I believe in Bourbon County. I also took that leap because something has become clear to me over the last couple of years - Bourbon County no longer believes in itself.
Our community's self-esteem is in the toilet, and while there are a multitude of reasons for this, I think I can trace this epidemic to one primary source: Facebook. Even though we know it's not good for us, like hopeless junkies, we visit toxic local Facebook groups day after day after day, often several times per day.
These groups tell us that we live in a dying, hopeless dump. They tell us that there's nothing of value in Bourbon County, no hope in Bourbon County, and that we'd all be better off living anywhere else. The worst part is that we've started to believe them.
These groups feed us half-truths posted on behalf of people driving self-serving agendas, often using well-meaning puppets to spread their narratives (and I’ve been one of those puppets, so I speak from experience). Worst of all, even though we know these groups aren’t trustworthy, they've become our defacto local news source.
On top of that, they encourage us to be our worst selves - to be cynical, to be arrogant, to be just plain nasty. Within five minutes of scrolling, I often have the urge to fire off some snarky, mean-spirited reply. Based on what I've seen, I'm not alone.
Unfortunately this behavior has spread well beyond the walls of Facebook, which brings me back to Monday night. These days it's rare that I attend a county commission meeting that doesn't at some point devolve into middle school drama. I have two adolescents under my roof - so believe me, I know it when I see it. It kills me to to watch, because I know we can do better - I know we can be better.
Worse yet, when I pop onto Facebook afterwards, I find out that I'm supposed to choose which side of the night's junior high theatrics I want to represent. No thanks, man. Toxic behavior - even if it’s from someone I personally like - is still toxic behavior. If you want to know whose side I'm on, I'm on Team Bourbon County.
Here's a secret: Bourbon County is actually pretty cool - in fact it's awesome. I've lived here (by choice) for the vast majority of my adult life. I've raised three amazing daughters here. There are lots of amazing people who live here, lots of awesome things to do here, and tons of potential for the future.
That being said, if we want to see that potential fulfilled, we've got to stop paying attention to local Facebook groups. We’ve got to stop taking our behavioral cues from local Facebook groups. We've got to break the addiction. I'm as guilty as anybody...in fact, I’ll go one step further:
My name is Nick, and I have a toxic local Facebook group problem.
The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? So join me in finding a sponsor or accountability partner so that we can all stop giving these groups our time and attention.
Here are four words that will change your life and the life of Bourbon County: Leave group and Unfollow group. Those two clicks of a mouse can literally change the trajectory of our community.
The only way to suck the oxygen out of the social media dumpster fire is to stop paying attention to it.
I've lost count of the number of people who have told me that they would be interested in running for local office, but they don't want themselves or their loved ones to be roasted online by "Citizens", concerned or otherwise. It's a hard (actually impossible) point to argue.
But what happens when we stop believing Facebook, and start believing in Bourbon County? What leaders will we see step up , and what will happen to our community?
I think the results will surprise you.
I believe in Bourbon County.
P.S. One Facebook page you should follow is the Bourbon County Monitor Facebook page.
P.P.S. I'm practicing what I preach and disabling comments on all future news articles on the Monitor Facebook page.
