Why is it so easy for us to jump to conclusions and believe the very worst about each other?

Is it because we have too much idle time to sit around and gossip on Facebook or at the coffee shop? When life is so fleeting, why would anyone waste their precious time trying to tear each other down? Maybe to feel better about themselves? Basic human nature? I really don't know.

Let's talk about the courthouse restoration cases. How many of us were willing to set ourselves up as judge and jury and convict our neighbors without knowing a single fact? And if all we actually knew was gossip on Facebook and from the coffee shop, we probably knew less than nothing. Did we really have it all figured out, or were we just pawns being used. Again, I think it's a fair question.

The first time we got a legal opinion from outside Fannin County, cases were dismissed for lack of evidence.

I watched people get madder than a wet hen without knowing any facts or even knowing any of the people we were so quick to condemn.

And here's the kicker. You want to know what this was all about? It could not have been more petty. We were willing to punish six families because one politician's personality clashed with another politician. It's that simple. To me it looked like childish, petty jealousy and an unhealthy need to control everything that goes on in a county by a pack of politicians who couldn't find Fannin County on a map 30 years ago.

No one was assaulted. No one was robbed.

We tormented six families for the worst possible reason; in Fannin County, we thought we could get away with it.

You say you are mad about cost overruns at the courthouse? Boy, am I glad you brought that up! So, just how mad are you that the Justice Center will end up costing twice what we were promised? As long as I live, every time I drive by that grand façade on the front of the Justice Center it will be a painful reminder that it is a monument to the politicians who led us down this path to ruin.

The 1888 courthouse, on the other hand, was a gift from our forefathers. It is a reflection of a proud generation that could compete with anybody, anywhere, anytime. And they proved it by building one of the finest courthouses in the state of Texas. When I hear people call the courthouse extravagant and grandiose, to me it is an insult to the people who built it. The Fannin County residents in 1888 were anything but fancy. They were hard-nosed folks who didn't take a back seat to anyone.

The Fannin County Courthouse is a reflection of the men and women who lived here in 1888.

The way we are acting now is a reflection on us. 

Major construction projects are a nightmare. The last one was, the current one is, and the next one will be. The only reason the public isn't inflamed about the budget overruns at the Justice Center is because you can't point your finger at it and blame "Spanky and the gang."

I had a county resident stop me to complain about Spanky Carter trying to sell a building to the county that Main Street Title now occupies.

I told him, "Spanky never owned that building. You guys have the wrong building, the wrong guy, or both."

And it left me stunned and wondering, how many people in this circle have gotten themselves worked up over something that is so inaccurate that it is bizarre. But that's the world we live in now.

Years ago, a friend told me that his dad believed the most dangerous invention in the history of the world was the coffee shop. I wasn't sure that I agreed with him at the time. Isn't it funny how, as we get older, dads get a whole lot smarter.

I heard a longtime investigator with the Boston Police Department describe a little time he spent in Fannin County. He said, "That's the kind of place where people pass around gossip and pretend it's gospel."

We didn't just prosecute six people and try to hang a 30-year sentence over their heads. We persecuted six families. Why? Petty jealousy and gossip.

And that brings me back to the first question.

Why is it so easy for us to believe the very worst about each other?