Moral Dilemma

I'm often torn between my desire for peace, harmony and forgiveness and my desire to make the world a better place by pointing out the shortcomings of others.

Take St. Louis (And I would gladly give it you). The city has some wonderful qualities (great architecture, wonderfully distinctive neighborhoods, and a whole lot of free attractions), but its citizens are widely regarded as the most parochial in the nation. No matter how old you are, it's a regular occurance to be asked where you went to high school, and if the answer is not somewhere in the St. Louis area, you will be immediately dismissed. This happened to me about once a week when we lived there.

Depite our "outsider" status, we were there for 2 years and I thought we made some strong friendships in that time. But, living up to the parochial stereotype, everyone we know there seemed to forget us the minute we left town.

It actually started even before we left. On our moving day, we were confident we had a team of volunteers from our church to help. Instead, precisely one couple and one close friend managed to show. Even our pastors stood us up. One pastor had promised to show up and help, and the other told us he had a slight conflict, but would be there late. We never heard from either of them. And we've hardly heard from anyone since.

This was particularly startling when the flood waters hit. I had several concerned messages from people at the church we left in Alabama 5 years ago, and our current church in Nashville has been terrifically supportive. But not a single word from St. Louis. Even among our dozens of facebook friends.

Our old church has an internet message board where people regularly post prayer requests and make small talk. Prayer requests are posted there all the time. There's no mention of us, or even Nashville, anywhere on it.

I still have a user account on that forum. I can't tell you how badly I want to start a thread on it saying:

"Not that anyone asked, but we're doing just fine thank you. But if you aren't too busy in your own self-absorption, maybe you could throw a prayer or two towards Nashville, because it appears that one here has thought of that. And by the way, how self-absorbed can you people possibly be?"

I would say it nicer than that, but you get the point. It would make me feel a little bit better. But I also know I'll regret it if I do.

Still, the city of St. Louis has a reputation for insularity and indifference toward the rest of the world. That's never going to change unless someone challenges the "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy that so many people there have. It's really not about me. I want people there to overcome their regional myopia that represents the city's biggest downfall. But doing so will doubtlessly enrage a lot of folks, and fray any remaining bit of goodwill from the people there that I still care about.

So, do I outrage people to help them, or just leave it be?