Editor's Note: after a brief hiatus, our longtime friend and contributor Diana Helper is back. For those who don't know Diana, she is a University Park lightning rod who has been a community activist for decades. Going forward, Diana will be editorializing on local concerns of interest to her and neighbors.
Hot heads! Global warming! Related? Is all this hot-headedness we’ve seen sizzling and venting, overheating and even exploding in garrulousness and worse—gunfire—a part of the super storms, fires, floods and earthquakes? Anger & Armageddon!
One thing is for sure—it is definitely time for cooler heads to prevail. Usher out spite, malice, lies and nastiness; folks are sick and tired of them. And ‘scuse me, but they don’t seem to be positive forces. Winter’s the perfect time for the Cooler Cranium Campaign, perhaps #thinkb4uspeak, with True-Truth Troopers, branches of Bluster-Busters, Bellicosity-Bleepers, Pomposity-Puncturers, and chapters of “Can We Talk?” set up by the Joan Rivers fans. Remember—two ears, one mouth. Ah yes, let’s give listening more ear time.
Gosh, neighborhoods have done this for ages; whenever a new city plan comes out of the blue and you say OMG that won’t work, you do not scream and rave (outwardly). You think of reasonable alternatives and try not to roll your eyes as you meet to listen, then ‘splain your idea so all parties see its merit. And next time your ideas will be met with more understanding and not a silent write off. Cool heads, not cold shoulders. Print that on your helicopter beanie. Yes, sometimes sturm und drang make you pound on a civic desk, come sternly to a hearing, even write an op-ed. Try to be cooool. Case in point: the winning Green Roof Initiative which was presented calmly, without mailing mania, its appeal to save money and the planet. The city, once opposed, now enjoys status as one of the Country’s Greenest Cities.
Soon it’s time to make resolutions. Let’s make them thoughtful and sustainable. Out with the fevered McNasties—onward and upward with clear thinking and cool heads and warm hearts. Amen.
‘Tis the season of peace on earth and goodwill. You will hear that a lot. It will be on pretty cards and in glorious music—the international language. In songs about Rudolph, whose nose turned out to be an asset, and everyone started appreciating him. In plays, where humbug becomes humanity. In action, with people providing food and gifts for people who have none. And housing for the homeless, such as the family that had no place to stay in Bethlehem and although the baby is the star, the hero is the innkeeper who shared his space so graciously.
Soon it’s time to make resolutions. Let’s make them thoughtful and sustainable. Out with the fevered McNasties—onward and upward with clear thinking and cool heads and warm hearts. Amen.
Diana Helper is a writer, singer, neighborhood and open space advocate—including being a creator of the Buchtel Trail/Prairie Project—an INC delegate, and an active alumna of Oberlin College. She has written for The Profile for over 30 years; she and her husband John are longtime UP residents.
