Dale Wyngarden: Human ugliness continues to put barriers between us
Late this fall, a drainage project necessitated closure of a major arterial street on the southwest side of town. The street had a posted speed limit of 40 mph, meaning typical speeds likely hit 45.
Traffic was detoured onto residential streets, including ours, with clearly posted 25 mph limits. Drivers seemed to think the inconvenience of a detour gave them special dispensation to keep traveling at 45. I thought a simple request to the Holland Police Department to increase their presence during the detour might bring some relief.
Finding online email links to city offices and officials was a piece of cake. Using them was anything but. Poke as I did at the email link, it was totally unresponsive. Figuring the system had a glitch, I gave up and tried again the next day. And I got the same non-response. Only on a third try did I see the tiniest of little banners at the top of the page prompting me to “create a website account.” Tapping it opened a whole page of procedure for creating an account, complete with username and password, in order to send an email to HPD or any other public office or official.
I understand the need for uniqueness in creating passwords to access medical information or financial records. But for other contacts where I have no privacy to protect, I have a simple, easy-to-remember and often-used password. The city’s program told me it didn’t like it and I needed to pick another one. With eight characters and a mix of letters and numbers. I gave up. I don’t need one more username and password to contend with. Certainly not to send a simple email to city hall. If I have to communicate, I’ll slap a 63-cent stamp on an envelope and do it the old-fashioned way.
Yes, the internet has opened doors for abuse. It is readily available to cranks, crooks, pranks, people threatening violence, and the ramblings of the deranged. Public officials are particularly vulnerable to such abuse. But they aren’t alone. Clergy, teachers, educators, businesses, and public institutions are all fair game. As a retired octogenarian, my own inbox still gets loaded with spam, scam and uninvited junk. We’d all like firewalls to discourage the deviants and keep out what we don’t want.
But sadly, a firewall is still a wall. A barrier. An impediment that discourages simple communication by simple constituents. No meter will ever tell public officials how many communications they never received because of a well-intended barrier to the unwanted. But count mine as one.
It is sadly paradoxical that we all want public transparency and open channels of communication. But trust, respectfulness, civility and dignity seem to be fading from discourse.
It is one more manifestation that the milk of human kindness, which I now suspect was more imaginary than actual, is indeed turning sour.
Years ago, I was so impressed with a brave stance Fred Upton has taken on an issue that I wanted to extend my admiration. Halfway through the cover form I had to fill out in order to get to the message box, it asked for my ZIP code. Instantaneously, red flags flew and a message said in effect that I didn’t live in his congressional district, he wasn’t interested in hearing from me, and I should try communicating with my own representative. There was nothing commendable about our local representative’s position, of course.
Little did I think then that this computer-manipulated door closure was a portent to communication barriers to come.
If this is the age we live in, so be it. It’s just that once more human ugliness seems to be an excuse for putting bars on the windows and gates at the door. It’s a bitter pill for those of us who’d hoped for better.
— Community Columnist Dale Wyngarden is a resident of the city of Holland. He can be reached at wyngarden@ameritech.net.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Dale Wyngarden: Human ugliness continues to put barriers between us
