Missing the point

By Andrew S. Cutler
Posted 1/27/16

By ANDREW S. CUTLER

Unless you were visiting Mongolia last week, chances are you probably noted a story coming out of Rhode Island, which became a viral sensation overnight. As I followed this …

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Missing the point

Posted

By ANDREW S. CUTLER

Unless you were visiting Mongolia last week, chances are you probably noted a story coming out of Rhode Island, which became a viral sensation overnight. As I followed this nuclear fallout on the Internet, I came to the realization that there was something very wrong with this picture, and it wasn’t a man in a wig.

I learned through my contacts, acting on tip from a lobbyist and elected officials about Sue Stenhouse’s resignation, Rhode Island news outlets went to work on crafting a story that they believed could have some form of payoff in the form of clicks back to their website, etc. A controversy was created where there was none. A fellow colleague volunteered to stand in for seniors who were to frail to attend a press conference. He was a man and dressed as a woman for the event. Big deal!

Well, the media’s strategy worked all too well. Cranston City Hall overreacted and Stenhouse was forced to resign her position, and then the Internet and social media erupted like Mt. Vesuvius. But does that make the story as it was reported newsworthy, relevant, or right?

Following the work of Sue Stenhouse, the former director of Cranston’s Senior Services, via Facebook, I was quite impressed. I couldn’t help but notice that she and her team were making great strides in programming and services geared towards one of our state’s largest (most vulnerable) and growing populations – our senior citizens. Also, as someone who has worked with media for over 20 years, I decided to take a closer look at the news reports to see if there was something else afoot. So, I reached out to her.

She could not have been more gracious in a time of overwhelming grief. She spoke of the press conference, the work she and her staff of 45 were able to achieve during her tenure, and went on to say how sorry and sad she was that her intention to protect the very seniors she served by having an “actor”/colleague instead of a truly frail constituent represented, was politicized, creating a distraction from a vital program. She had recruited 85 students to shovel out frail and impoverished senior citizens when it snows. I came away from that call even more frustrated about this situation.

Other achievements Stenhouse and her team were able to spearhead for the Cranston Senior Center during her tenure included major kitchen renovations (the center serves daily 1,300 subsidized meals for 29 senior meal sites throughout Rhode Island). Stenhouse also championed a partnership with New Hope Art Gallery to showcase 300 local and national works of art; offered memoir writing courses for seniors with Rhode Island-based writer, Sarah Baldwin; created a weekly column in the Cranston Herald with information for seniors; and even brought Cranston-native Dr. Rudy Tanzi (named as one Time magazine’s 2015 “100 Most Influential People in the World”) back to Cranston for a community discussion on “Ending Alzheimer’s Disease by 2025.”

To be clear, Ms. Stenhouse and I are casual acquaintances at best. She is a Republican Party loyalist and I am a liberal Democrat. I am a native New Englander and she is from America’s Heartland in Minnesota. My support for her has more to do with her record of achievement, her passion and advocacy for seniors, and her willingness to bring new offerings to seniors based on their interest and needs. In other words, she listened to her constituency and did her job well.

As I continue to process this situation, I can’t help but think of something author Dwight Currie said: “We have a choice about how we behave, and that means we have the choice to opt for civility and grace.”

When our lust for humoring ourselves and friends at the expense of others is greater than our desire to address the needs of our fastest growing demographic, we have entered into a realm that lacks both empathy and substance; someplace I prefer not to go. The more we react like lemmings, and demand less from our news sources, the further we drift from having productive movement in addressing societal challenges in the here and now. I know I for one am much more tuned in to looking out and aiding my elderly neighbors as a result of Stenhouse’s work.

Andrew S. Cutler is Founder of Smaller Cities Unite!, and a Providence-based communications professional.

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