Fresh off the Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors elected come the pledges from the new members to change the way the board conducts business by bringing greater degree of civility to the board’s discussions.
This isn’t a new promise, as virtually no one goes into office anywhere saying he or she intends to be a disruptive, take-no-prisoners flamethrower.
This isn’t a situation peculiar to Ocean Pines, but is a national development that seems to subscribe to the philosophy that volume and repetition, not facts, logic or common sense, are the most important factors in winning a debate.
In other words, if someone says something loud enough and frequently enough anything anyone else might say can’t be true.
The new members of the board certainly seem like reasonable people who are capable of avoiding the usual head-butting when opinions differ and the vote appears to be headed in a direction they can’t support.
The key, of course, is to stick to business, leave personalities out of it and to act on facts, rather than on instincts and presupposition, and be willing to accept that there is no such thing as one way of doing things.
We congratulate the winners of this year’s race and hope they do well over the course of their terms. We also encourage them to respect the process and each other and to never, ever turn a disagreement over policy into a personal matter.