Consider action before blithely signing petitions

A story about a petition against the annual Sutton Valence water slide event in this week’s paper stands as a warning to us all.

Some residents signed petitions to oppose the fundraiser after being told organisers, The Queen’s Head Oddfellows, had not applied for road closures.

Many were upset to find they had been misinformed.

While petitions can be an effective way for people to have their voices heard, many of us are perhaps guilty of failing to fully understand what we are supporting or to consider better avenues for action.

This is unsurprising with the seemingly infinite number of calls to action on social media which appeal to strong emotion and require little effort or thought to sign.

People are getting used to the idea of what some have called ‘slacktivism.’

Certainly, some residents in this case believed the petition would be handed to the Oddfellows for them to act on but it appears no effort was made to discuss a solution to the issue of road closures.

At this point we are possibly in danger of relying too heavily on knee-jerk reactions when we are told of wrong-doing instead of asking more questions.

Simply putting pen to paper to write a name is definitely an easy option and gives an instant sense of righteousness compared to tackling a problem in all it’s complexity.

In Sutton Valence organisers may also not try fundraising in the future because of fears of being unwelcome.

In future it may be wise to check our facts, question what we are being told, and take a moment to consider our best course of action.