Jill's Journal: Enough

“Enough!” I heard my mom yell, yes, yell that very word at my brother and I as kids once she had grown tired of the typical arguments that siblings have.

That very word has come to mind on numerous occasions over the last several months. And I know I’m not the only one tiring of the continual beratement on social media sites that city leaders, businessowners and others have had to endure. While the beratement is more than ENOUGH, one site has the audacity to make false, uneducated, uniformed, non-factual and oftentimes, very personal and hurtful accusations without putting a name to them.

Cowards, I say, cowards.

I challenge the nameless posters to do their jobs with the public calling them out on every move they make. Did the miss the garbage can when tossing a piece of paper into it? How shameless. Let’s tell the world they have bad aim.

Did they misspell a word? Let’s put it out there for the world to be the judge and jury.

Did they drive the wrong way one a one-way street? Again, let’s announce it to the world.

How about the folks that don’t “Buy Brandon” on a regular basis? Perhaps we should create a site that discredits those who drop their dollars in Sioux Falls or Omaha or Minneapolis, for example.

Jennifer Lopez starred in a movie by the same name of the title of this column, Enough. In the movie, her character is controlled by her husband until one day, when she’s finally had ENOUGH, she and her daughter run away from the unhealthy environment.

I find it interesting there were three council vacancies and the mayoral position up for grabs in Tuesday’s municipal election, yet, only one person filed for each of the three council chairs and just two candidates threw their name in the hat to serve as our mayor. I thank those who did step forward.

I blame the public shying away from serving their community in this capacity on the daily negativity that’s aired on social media sites. These sites were created to tear apart a community, to berate individuals, city leaders and businesspeople who work and volunteer in various aspects to make Brandon a better place to live, to work and to play. The sites do not educate, inform or enlighten, as they claim, but instead only provide bits and pieces of the facts, all to simply to “stir the pot.”

I’ve had enough. And I know the vast majority of the good people of this city have, too, which leads me back to my mom’s words, “Enough, Brandon! Enough!”