Commentary: In the Oakridge community, the sad evidence of our malaise sits right before our eyes

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald – If you live in Oakridge, you drive past it almost every day: the school district’s letter-board sign at First Street and Crest Drive.

“BE THE LIGHT,” it says. Day after day. After day. Stuck in time.

The words went up there nearly a year ago after COVID-19 put a stop to our high school graduation rites.

For a while, “BE THE LIGHT” was an uplifting response to the heartbreaking cancellation of our kids’ cherished traditions. But after dreary months, it morphed from uplifting slogan to depressing evidence of something wrong in our town.

Nearby was more such evidence of community malaise: The school district’s electronic reader board, the once-handsome stonework that used to remind us of school board meetings and potlucks and student activities, sits broken down and forlorn. It’s been that way for months.

Teachers. Students. School board members. Parents. Newspaper editors. All of us see this evidence almost every day but don’t speak up.

I’ll speak up today. Let’s do something about this. They say we have a communication problem in Oakridge. You think?

As we learned to say during COVID-19, we’re all in this together. Let’s stop the finger-pointing and work together.

No money to fix the electronic sign? I’ll chip in the first five bucks and show up for the work party.

No staff to put letters up on the reader board? I’ll volunteer for one shift a week.

That poor sign should be telling us “School Board Meeting Tonight” or “7-on-7 Football Thursday.”

The Herald doesn’t do partisan commentary, and this isn’t partisan. It’s a comment on all of us in the community, including yours truly. Are we going to talk with each other, or are we just going to bicker?

In Oakridge, “BE THE LIGHT” needs to become “BE THE COMMUNICATORS.”

Herald Editor Doug Bates is a retired newspaper journalist who lives in Oakridge.