Shelby County – “We don’t need whiners, they serve no purpose”

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

As the Shelby County Board continues to move forward and fix a litany of problems, social media keyboard warriors continue to spread misinformation, however a recent post, “We don’t need whiners, they serve no purpose”, is one we totally agree with.

Practicing what one preaches is typically a good practice.

• “The courthouse is a public building, to enable us to have a location, to perform public services, and to have a place to provide services and courts for the community.”
• “During working hours, if the public is to be served properly, every office should be open from 8 to 4 with their door unlocked.…….This location is supposed to serve the public, not hide from them, and have their door locked. I only know one office who does this.”
• “I am not going to use the Wi-Fi system at the courthouse, until something changes, not going to take a chance of offending anyone.”
• “I personally would advise against using this Wi-Fi, because you might be harassed or threatened.
• “I’ve heard you can catch a possible felony charge for using the Wi-Fi at the courthouse. I turn my Wi-Fi on my phone off when go in. I don’t want to possibly be charged for theft.”
• “There were several military people in Shelby County, who lost their lives to protect your freedom, we should not let people from other locations take it away and control us. This is absurd, it must be stopped.”

The above comments are nothing but whining about matters in what appears to be an effort to stir up division rather than actually fix anything. Let’s compare the comments with reality.

• We agree the courthouse is a public building intended for a public purpose. What it is not intended to be is a location for a person’s personal entertainment.  –“I was taking a tour of the courthouse Tuesday, just for some entertainment” (posted by the same person who explains the purpose of the courthouse).  “It only needs to be available to hold special meetings, or planned public meetings, before 8 or after 4″. Which is it, a place for your personal entertainment or a place for public business? 
• While the courthouse does have designated hours of operation, each office is not subject to be open from 8-4 with their door unlocked as implied. In fact, state law clearly spells out which offices are mandated to be open and designates their hours of operation. If the law makes no such declaration for other offices then they are not required to be open nor have their door unlocked.  A simple review of the requirements of the elected officeholders will verify this. We are confident the legislature had good reason for some offices to not have designated hours of operation.  Some offices are locked for security reasons but acknowledging that does not help the purpose of the whining and false insinuations that those officeholders are hiding.
  
• If a person uses the public wifi in the courthouse, we find no possible way anyone could be offended as people would have no clue anyone else is using it, outside of the server providing the access.  If the person does not want to use it until something changes, maybe a suggestion as to what they think needs changed would help resolve the matter rather than whining about a perceived problem.
• Who on earth would be the one harassing or threatening anyone who uses public wifi access?  How would the alleged harasser or one making threats even know who to harass or threaten?
• There is nothing in the law that would support a member of the public using public wifi to be charged with a felony or for theft.  Whoever they “heard” that from is doing nothing but fabricating false information and their spreading it is part of the problem or plan of creating division.
• The whining implies people from other locations are taking away their freedom and controlling them.  If that is the case, I would agree, it’s absurd. The fact is, there is no one trying to take anyone’s freedoms or control them.  We do find it most interesting that this freedom-loving soul is the same person who signaled to a former County Chairman to cut off the public comment of a person who was calling them out for the misinformation they spewed at a public meeting.

Contrary to a few keyboard warriors who routinely whine about matters and create a false narrative to support the whine, the fact remains that the citizens of Shelby County spoke loudly at the last election and elected a group of citizens who stepped up to serve their county and represent their districts.  Those same people are taking steps to correct matters on a scale we have not witnessed in our thirteen years of local government work. They should be commended for doing their best to do the right thing. Will they make mistakes?  Of course, they will. The difference now is those mistakes are corrected rather than making excuses and continuing on with the bad practices as was done with past board members.

These select few whiners know quite well that if you spread false information or lies enough, people will believe it. We urge people to do their own homework and stop this crazy addiction of hitting a share button on social media before ever fact-checking the information.