Patricia Hewitt

Local columnist

After living in small towns for the past 14 years, I have a better appreciation for how change frightens people.

When I was appointed to the Board of Tax Assessors in Liberty County, I believe I was one of the first members that had not been born and raised in the county. This caused fear among some that I would immediately want to change things. Happily, none of that happened and my tenure on the Board was a wonderful experience. Yet, this is an old story and it goes like this: outsiders are bad because they don’t know how things should work. Translation: We are in power. We know how things should work (in our favor). New ideas are bad, old practices are good (as long as we’re in control). Therefore, these fears are not about change itself, but about maintaining control.

Back in the day, some of you may remember when boys who grew their hair long were seen as communists, drug addicts, and worse – hippies! I remember friends who were kicked out of their house for refusing to cut their hair. You see, it wasn’t the long hair that was the problem. The problem was that young people of that time were bursting out of the social constraints of the 50’s and exerting their independence. This took the form of long hair, rock music, and horrors – sexual freedom.

Many saw these changes as a direct assault on their carefully structured controls.

This must be stopped! Our country is in ruins! Hysteria, hysteria, hysteria!

Today, we are embroiled in culture wars that target the LGBTQ+ community. Unlike back in the Sixties when there was an actual news cycle and grass roots organized on the ground, our outrage machine is fully operational. This machine is fueled by corporations, wealthy influencers, and “news” outlets as part of a larger effort to suppress alternative social identities in order to maintain control.

Sadly, what so many don’t understand is this culture war will ultimately fail too. But like all wars, it leaves in its wake unnecessary death and destruction.

The cruelty shown to families and children that are simply trying to navigate life is breathtaking. Yet we are living in a time where cruelty has come back bigly. From separating families at the border and putting children into cages to attacking public servants for doing their job, and firing teachers for daring to even mention a family that is non-traditional; it’s all in a day’s work for the never-change agents.

Sadly, we’ve been here before and let me remind you that, it didn’t end well then either. Recall the violent reaction to the demand for civil rights from our black population, met with attack dogs, beatings, and firehoses.

Or the forcible removal of Native American children from their families to put them in state-run indoctrination schools where they were often abused and even killed.

We put Japanese Americans into concentration camps during World War II, taking their property and businesses. Does any of this represent a moment in American history that you feel proud of?

As a practical matter, discrimination and suppression are also bad for business.

Here’s what a recent article in The Hill had to say about the impact of anti-LGBTQ+ policies on economic prosperity: “We have strong evidence that diverse teams lead to better business results. In 2018, Deloitte released its diversity and inclusion report, demonstrating that organizations with more inclusive cultures were two times more likely to meet or exceed their financial targets, three times more likely to be high performing, six times more likely to be innovative and agile, and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes. It’s hard to argue with the business benefits of diversity.”

Dear reader, change is inevitable and periodically, human society goes through major evolutionary cycles where our beliefs and our norms are tested. Similar to the upheavals of the sixties, we are seeing once again, a pitched battle between the forces of change and its resistance. What should give us pause is the acceptance of violent, irrational rhetoric that has no purpose other than destruction.

Local columnist Patti Hewitt is a Richmond Hill resident.