Letter to a friend: Greensboro's greatest need

I wrote this to a friend today.
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I really think there is a tendency in Greensboro that keeps us distracted, small and suspicious. It is the inability to man up with candor and admit the simplest of errors or even, short of that, to even acknowledge the most obvious of inconvenient facts. The N&R on the black book, Johnson in his handling of Wray, Wray in his handling of the police, Bellamy-Small on the RMA leak, Carmany with her unquestioning acceptance of the RMA report, the players of 11/09/79, the destruction of police records that turned out not to be that at all, the secret recordings of black leader that turned out to have a (as yet not publicly acknowledged) innocent explanation; the CFGG's press release, however minor it might be in comparison, is just the latest example of a similar reticence to deal with things accurately and honestly.

Can you imagine (not rhetorical, try to really imagine) how different your lifetime thus far in Greensboro would be if it were a place where we didn't go flying off the rails because people were too small to admit a mistake or be candid? Each of the examples above, and a dozen others I can think of, were exacerbated to the unnecessary point of dramatic crisis because people would not address them with candor. Each could have been remedied if they had been addressed with honesty.

I know we are disagreeing about some specifics at the moment, but think about the value to Greensboro of getting us to think, collectively, more about candor, sincerity and genuine goodwill. Maybe my tactics need honing but, as a strategic goal, I think this is the most compelling single thing to propel us to a better future; more than aerotropolis jobs, more than attracting the creative class, more than any initiative proposed or pursued, correcting our aversion to candor would send us soaring.