Historically, certain professions accepted the reality of living in a “fish bowl.” Politicians, pastors/ministers, school leaders, and city leaders all signed up for this in some measure. People in private-sector leadership understand the fishbowl, too, due to social media, as do teachers, law enforcement, and healthcare workers. Swimming in the fishbowl is not just for high-profile leaders anymore. Nowadays, anyone can find themselves in the public fishbowl, but in the COVID Era, the fishbowl is now full of piranhas. And if you or someone you love has ever been piranha’d, you need no definition. Find a leader in a fishbowl, add piranhas.
Many of us signed up for life in the fishbowl, but in the social media age, anyone can unexpectedly take a swim. No matter who you are or how you found your fishbowl, no one is truly ready for it. The stress on your family, relationships, and health can be overwhelming under normal circumstances, but add a few piranhas, and life in the fishbowl has become a blood sport. Without warning and without cause, anyone (literally anyone) can be attacked with a thousand tiny bites while the public watches on.
Consequently, joyful jobs like coaching or volunteer positions like school board and city council are rapidly becoming less joyful. Modern technology has devolved into something medieval. Decent people are now publicly piranha’d simply for having a different perspective, a different philosophy, or a deeply held conviction. People are demonized simply because of their profession, titles or labels. A snap of the jaws, a little blood in the water, and a feeding frenzy.
When we interject national political vitriol into our homes, churches, schools, and communities, people become caricatures and symbols. Symbols become targets. Ideas become weaponized, and decent people become dehumanized. Consequently, piranhas are tossed into our schools and churches and neighborhoods. Before we allow anyone else to be piranah’d, we must remember that these are real people with families, jobs, and dreams. They are our neighbors. Our doctors and nurses. Our pastors and principals.
Do people’s titles, positions, or political parties make them more or less human? Do we really believe local board members and city council members are evil? Your local teachers are radicals? Healthcare workers are trying to hurt people? Parents are terrorists? Do we really believe this about each other?
We may never see our statewide or national discourse return to civility, but at the local levels, we can restore decency by recognizing each other as people, not as symbols. Your local “fishbowl” leaders are often simply volunteers; they do not deserve to be demonized. People working in the fishbowl do not always deserve praise, but they don’t deserve to be constantly piranha’d, either.
Our children are watching, and how we treat each other as adults teaches them volumes about our world. Our little Mayberry can either nullify or affirm the world’s ugliness. We can model true tolerance – accepting people even when we do not agree with them – or they can see a world full of bloody fishbowls, where our online profiles or likes determine our worth as people.
National civility will never be restored until we restore it locally, in our own communities, our own churches, and our own neighborhoods. We must model it for our children, whether online or in person, and maybe what starts locally could spread statewide and infect our whole nation. Make no mistake, however, it starts in our own fishbowls, and it starts with us. Enough of us have the scars, so we know what to look for. Let’s no longer permit colleagues and neighbors to be piranha’d. Sure, it may still happen in faraway places, but not in our local fishbowls. Not in our Mayberries.
Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com
