Petition Against Mean-Spirited Petitions
Opened on March 11, 2012
We, the undersigned parents of Atlanta, reject the use of mean-spirited, anonymous, poorly-thought-out petitions.
We believe goodwill is better than anger, openness is better than secrecy, fairness is better than underhandedness, and thinking things through is better than reacting reflexively. We're convinced that when the former qualities are relied upon, things generally turn out better. And when the latter qualities are relied upon ... well, you get the picture.
We prefer open, civil, productive discourse to skulking around other people's backs and accusing them randomly of imagined crimes just so we can get what we imagine is in our own narrow self interest.
We realize that the ideas outlined in this petition may be deemed by some as controversial, and that some Atlanta parents may consider Mahatma Gandhi to be a really bad guy. But we're willing to go out on a limb to sign the thing. And we'll actually put our real names to it!
We believe that, instead of spending time and energy figuring out how to throw each other under the bus, we all ought to do the hard work to figure out ways to navigate the bus together. Call us hopelessly naive, but we believe that tired ideas that have been rejected repeatedly are less likely to produce good results than is working together toward thoughtful, shared solutions.
Finally, we urge media organizations to think before uncritically amplifying mean-spirited, anonymous, poorly-thought-out petitions.
We believe goodwill is better than anger, openness is better than secrecy, fairness is better than underhandedness, and thinking things through is better than reacting reflexively. We're convinced that when the former qualities are relied upon, things generally turn out better. And when the latter qualities are relied upon ... well, you get the picture.
We prefer open, civil, productive discourse to skulking around other people's backs and accusing them randomly of imagined crimes just so we can get what we imagine is in our own narrow self interest.
We realize that the ideas outlined in this petition may be deemed by some as controversial, and that some Atlanta parents may consider Mahatma Gandhi to be a really bad guy. But we're willing to go out on a limb to sign the thing. And we'll actually put our real names to it!
We believe that, instead of spending time and energy figuring out how to throw each other under the bus, we all ought to do the hard work to figure out ways to navigate the bus together. Call us hopelessly naive, but we believe that tired ideas that have been rejected repeatedly are less likely to produce good results than is working together toward thoughtful, shared solutions.
Finally, we urge media organizations to think before uncritically amplifying mean-spirited, anonymous, poorly-thought-out petitions.
Facebook
Twitter