Guest Commentary

BOERNE – I had the great privilege of being invited to a luncheon for community leaders put on by the Ministerial Alliance on the National Day of Prayer last week.  During that luncheon, Kendall County Judge Gaylan Schroeder spoke. Over the years, I have witnessed him doing very private small and great acts of kindness toward others.  From what I’ve heard, many others have had the same experience. The gathered assembly of civic, school and religious leaders listened to his every word with great interest. 

Gaylan spoke about unity and about people looking beyond issues to the people with whom they are interacting.  Essentially he was reminding us that the people are more important than the particular issue being discussed. He went on to remind us that as leaders we are servants – and therefore ought to be humble. He pointed to the times that a famous carpenter called small children before him and told others (when they argued about who was greatest) that we need to become more like a small child and less like a puffed up Pharisee. I needed to hear this. 

Later in the program, when prayers were solicited from the leaders, Mayor Patrick Heath’s petitions were announced and among them a simple request that people in our community would together seek the common good.  Still later, Rev. Randy Couchman’s remarks had much the same theme. He has detected a spirit of dis-unity of late in our community.  Good-natured people find themselves at odds with one another over issues that can be resolved without rancor. 

After having lived here for nine years, I believe this is one of the finest communities in America – and its atmosphere of great good will is among its strongest attributes.  It must be safeguarded.  Thus, this spirit of dis-unity is alien to the majority – and should be recognized and not rewarded.  

Although Rev. Couchman put his comments in a positive vein, I will add there are just a few people in our midst who delight in controversy and in pitting one person against another. I will occasionally be presented with an e-mail or a phone call whose origins I can easily trace back to specific individuals who push themselves forward every time there is an opportunity to sow discord.  It is as though they see opportunity for pats on the back – if only they can cut someone else down with seemingly “well researched” and “intelligent” criticisms. They also try to use the local newspapers, hoping that the media will be drawn to a new controversy, whether the accusations are true or not.  The perpetrators must know that, by the time their targets are proven innocent or their accusations unfounded, the damage is done. In some cases, they succeed in their quest because people of a meeker nature may submit to the angry and misinformed mob. 

At present, the most controversial local issue is “growth.”  There are legitimate points of view on both sides of that issue.  But I ask the community to note with skepticism the names of those participating in these valid discussions who have also stirred up the pot on many other unrelated issues in the past. While their actions are occasionally defended as crusades for truth, they are more often throwing the community into confusion and discord. And that’s only what we hear in public. God knows what they are like in their own homes. Thus, when someone is criticizing another named individual, I simply suggest looking harder at the person offering that criticism –and less at the absent target. 

The county judge and others discussed unity in a more positive and uplifting way than I do here. They appealed to the angels of our better nature. The people move here for many reasons – but they stay because they are blessed by a spirit of genuine warmth and caring in Boerne. But that atmosphere must be protected from those who seek personal advantage in destroying it.

John P. Kelly, Ph.D., is superintendent of the Boerne Independent School District.