My Christmas wish list

It’s almost Christmas, which means it’s time for our wish lists. Mine starts with what should be an easy one.

I wish people would stop trashing our country. Litter and pet feces make our neighborhoods, our countryside and our society look dirty, tacky, inconsiderate and careless.

That people refuse to do something so simple – dispose of trash appropriately – suggests that perhaps our nation deserves some of those adjectives.

I wish that the stupid things people say or do – including things from more than a decade ago – were not so often hyped into national scandals.

Because we are part of a culture focused on churning up digital anger and fear, regrettable emails, tweets and other actions are blown up into sins against humanity. Further, the blunders or offensive antics of one person are claimed to be representatives of whole categories of people.

The traffickers in exaggerated scandals are usually more destructive and intolerant than the people they target.

I wish people could distinguish between wealth and intelligence. Just because someone is rich doesn’t mean they are smart, or even savvy about business. Usually it means their family and their bankers have hired competent people to look after the money.

I also wish people were better at separating fame and expertise. An NFL quarterback, for example, may be a genius about football, but that doesn’t mean you should listen to his advice about contagious diseases.

Americans are too enamored of celebrities. We buy their useless health products, call on them to testify before Congress, solicit their advice on national policies, and admire them for their political activities.

I wish we were better at recognizing and appreciating true expertise, even when the experts tell us things we do not want to hear.

Experts aren’t always right, and they will be the first to tell you that. But they are far superior to the pretenders who promote themselves by trashing expertise, knowledge and science.

I wish people would be more considerate about using their key fobs to lock/unlock their cars. Honking your horn after 10 p.m. is not a neighborly thing to do, unless it’s a true emergency.

I wish every political debate did not have to be framed as either-or. Like Columbus Day or Indigenous People Day. Socialism or Capitalism. No gun restrictions or no guns at all. It makes us look simple-minded.

I wish we would stop trying to make heroes out of men who shoot unarmed people.

It now may be legal to shoot and kill someone because you are fearful of the situation you helped create, or because you’re afraid of the person you provoked. But it is not an act of heroism.

I wish there was more enforcement of traffic laws, such as speeding, distracted driving and aggressive driving.

Our roads are growing more dangerous, as evidenced by an 18 percent increase in traffic fatalities during the first six months of 2021. Bad drivers and bad driving have wiped out two decades of progress.

I wish the best to local newspapers, journalists and journalistic endeavors striving to succeed in the 21^st century.

Lots of different ideas are being tried, but the goal ought to be the same for the varied approaches: Not only to help good journalists make a living, but to deliver credible, reliable local news and information, which are vital to sustaining strong communities.

Now a resident of Arizona, Doll is a native of Garden City, Kansas. A former journalist, she worked at newspapers in Kansas, California, New York and Indiana.