This ain't no novel

People are jaded. People are jaded by thoughts they've formed without all the information they needed to form them. That's one thing I have learned since starting to write for Community Free Press - Midweek, and believe me, I've learned a lot (thanks, Mert).

There are a lot of things I thought I knew that I didn't know at all, but let me explain something else, too. People can also be jaded by talking to the very people they report on, or maybe jaded isn't the right word, more like impressed, swayed, biased or shmoozed, something like that. At least I am susceptible to being schmoozed because I really want to like people and I suspect a lot of reporters grapple with that issue every day.

I heard somebody on the Vincent David Jericho program on KSGF this morning make the statement that we should be suspicious of government but not cynical, that becoming cynical can do more harm than good (or something like that). I think that deserves a bit of thought. Suspicion is the:

1. act of suspecting; imagination of the existence of guilt, fault, falsity, defect, or the like, on slight evidence or without evidence. Source: my American College Dictionary, Random House - New York, copyright, 1947.

To be a cynic is to be:

1. a sneering faultfinder; one who doubts or denies the goodness of human motives, and who often displays his attitude by sneers, sarcasm, etc. Source: same as above (I love my old dusty dictionary).

I think being suspicious might be suspecting someone but being willing to accept the facts if they don't line up with one's suspicions. Being a cynic, I think, might be an unwillingness to accept the facts at all if they don't support what one wants to believe, which, apparently, is always the worst. I surely wouldn't want to develop the nasty habit of being a cynic. A cynic doesn't seem like a very attractive thing to be.

The fact is: I like people and I like to think the best of them. I like to think that people can disagree and people can do ill advised things for honorable reasons or, if the things they do are simply inexcusable, out of ignorance and that when they know better they'll want to do the right thing, but, in all honesty, that isn't always the case. Sometimes people choose not to do the right thing for less than honorable reasons. I could give some examples where I suspect that has happened in this very city with people in high positions but I'd prefer to just enjoy this little exercise in a more general sense and save the rest of it for sometime when I have real facts instead of suspicions.

So, now you think about it. Do you have a suspicious mind or are you a cynic? I wouldn't wish being a cynic on anyone, that seems like it would be a very unhappy attitude.

I think we should probably all give each other a chance until we can prove our suspicions are more than just suspicions.

...and sorry, maybe this was boring. I was just thinkin' and didn't want anyone to get the impression I was working on my next novel. ;)