Regressing to the mean

Happy 2018, people. I feel like Tim Robbins climbing out of the sewer pipe at the end of “The Shawshank Redemption” in leaving 2017 behind.

It was the year America settled in with its first orange president (and perhaps the only 71-year-old with a full head of blonde "hair") who simultaneously acts as beacon for the rude and the degrading — boasting them as traits of success like an '80s movie businessman villain.

It’s not a problem localized to the president of the United States.

In my year-end interview with Penticton Mayor Andrew Jakubeit, he pointed to personal attacks by Penticton citizens on himself and each other as the low point of his year.

Since I started along the mine-filled career path that is journalism, I have been personally attacked (verbally), accused of high treason, accused of lying for a living and on it goes. Long story short, I can relate to the mayor. I once penned a column chastising those in Penticton who were being, for lack of a better word, nasty to each other at the height of the Skaha Lake Park fiasco.

I’d like to say things have gotten better since, but it’s a hard thing to measure, and anecdotally Penticton has a problem with being mean.

I feel like my younger, rebellious teenage self would shudder at the thought of me writing this next sentence, but: We need to remember our manners.

I feel like society as a collective has dropped a lot of the norms from generations past, mostly for the best, but as soon as “social media” became a term, all manners went out the window.

There is something about being a step removed from actual human interaction that brings out the worst in us. Sure I might disagree with what you say, I might even think it’s ridiculous, but extrapolating that to your worth as a person is not a way to go.

Canadians may have some of the the least derogative stereotypes in the world: We like hockey and we say “soorey.” I’d like to keep it that way. Manners are more than saying “please” and “thank you.” It’s the outward portrayal of one’s self to the world.

We have all had a bad day, or strongly disagreed with an opinion, but going after someone as a human being because of this is just poor form.

I’m not much for making New Year’s resolutions for myself. I quit making them after not becoming the world karate champion at age nine, but I’d like to make one for the Okanagan Valley: This year, be nice, be understanding, bite your tongue once in a while and remember we're all in this together. You’d be amazed at what a little kindness can do.