Where are grace and goodness hiding?

 Hastings, Minnesota: Candidate's child became target in school board election - CNN

Sadly, oh so so so sadly, not in Hastings?

I retired as Director of Community Education for the Hastings Public Schools almost five years ago.  When I first took the job, my dear friend Jackie, also a Director of Community Education, told me that I would be better for them than they would be for me.

Yes and no.

First, an aside: my Minnesota readers are familiar with Community Education.  To those of you who reside elsewhere--Community Education is an integral component of every Minnesota school district, providing education and school-community linkages.  Programs are funded primarily through user fees.  In a school district organization chart, the Community Education Director is a member of the Superintendent's Cabinet and s/he is the Community Education Director's direct report.

Back to that yes and no.  Yes, Jackie was right.  The administrative structure in the district and I didn't always see eye to eye, and naturally I believed (and this was based on prior experience and operations I saw in a myriad of other districts) I was right and the district was--okay, I'm retired so I can say it--they were wrong.  Many days I felt as if I was swimming upstream with a backpack of bricks.  If the phone showed someone from the district office was calling, I came to immediately wonder, "What did I do wrong NOW?"

But, in the way of great fortune, Jackie was wrong.  I would have sought another position had I not fallen in love with the community, the way it cared for its own, the admirable sense of collaboration in the true sense of the word that community organizations executed.  I don't think the school system ever realized how much it benefited from these collaborations.  

When I first took the job, I made a round of meetings with district staff, moving on to community leadership.  I was struck by how community leadership not only talked about what their mission and goals were, but how they lived them through programs, outreach.  I had the privilege of serving on the boards of the Hastings Area YMCA and Hastings Family Service.  I believed this part of Hastings Family Service mission statement reflects the work done in the community, for the community:

Our philosophy is to protect the dignity of the individual and to see the person before the problem.

So when a couple friends from the community reached out with the link at the beginning of this blog (in summary: the chair of the school board's child--AN 8 YEAR OLD--was outed as transgender on Facebook by community members), my heart broke.  Really?  Whoever did this?  This felt like a good idea because you were pissed at the chair of the school board for, at this point, God Only Knows whatever 'good' reason you believe you have for being pissed?

They were wrong.  Period.  End of discussion.  No ifs, ands or buts about it.  And now, for the people of Hastings, the only alternative I see for them to regain that amazing sense of community where the dignity of the individual is protected and the problem is secondary to the person, is to STAND UP.

It's too late for the family.  They're moving on, and God bless them on their journey.  As Jackie once said, they were better for Hastings than Hastings was for them.

Where are grace and goodness hiding?

Last Sunday at church, pastor Mary Cole-Duvall suggested that we emulate her husband who goes the extra mile to acknowledge acts of kindness.  She used the example of being stopped by a police officer who treated her with dignity and respect and kindness, even though she was speeding and had earned the ticket he was about to give her.  The next day, Mary called the police station and asked to speak to the chief, who was stunned that she was calling to commend the officer.  "We don't get too many calls like this," he told her. 

Can you do this now?  Hastings, in particular, can you do this?  Can you bring grace and goodness out of hiding to acknowledge their presence in our midst?  

On Sunday I was motivated both by Mary and the CNN article.  Please.  Consider this a respectful request for you to do the same, especially during this faith-filled season.

Find them.  Find grace and goodness.   Kindness, too, while you're at it.  I will not accept we are a society where it is okay for a few people who aren't getting their way to exert power that so negatively impacts a child.  Be brave and go do it.