As local community journalists, we are often privy to what goes on behind the scenes. Many times, there are happy business developments or partnerships brewing that we can’t discuss yet, but at times the backstage conversations we hear are full of internal fighting, sub rosa motivations, and squabbling.

Taking into account the plethora of interesting and sometimes out-sized personalities in the communities we cover, and as we regularly report on the governmental, and otherwise, goings-on in the locale’s we serve, we witness a lot of this backstage arguing. A lot. Old grudges — even from several decades prior! — and some that even result in lawsuits, are slung back and forth, sometimes with impunity.

Every now and then these squabbles make it into the paper. Most of the time, however, they do not.

We are all human, with stress and baggage (especially these days), but what we are seeing is that these old beefs, these old issues, often resurface in the normal course of debate, and unfortunately, have a very real effect on our present communities.

Now this is the spot we’d love to lay out a few examples. That’s dicey of course — these arguments happen behind the scenes for a reason, and we don’t want to get the legal department involved here. But if you think we may be talking about you, well, perhaps we are.

Suffice it to say, we live in close-knit communities — “Small Town USA” is how many people consider our area. With small towns, you find a sometimes-large swath of the community who have known each other all their lives. Known each other when they were in grade school and perhaps one bullied the other, maybe someone stole someone else’s partner or some shady business dealings took place. Now these folks are middle age (usually) and up, and aiming to work together on various boards, with power to make decisions for the entire community. For even the best of us, we sometimes retain old grudges and it’s difficult to get past warring personalities to concentrate on the big picture. But when you hold positions of power, you cannot let these old beefs affect the present. There is literally too much at stake.

There are fire companies who have old issues with one another, so much so they wouldn't call the other in their time of need for mutual aid. There was someone on a local non-profit board, who left five years ago, but residents are still sore at the non-profit because of what that one person did. We’ve seen very public dust-ups between local board members. Residents who lost their bid for election, but attend meetings to yell at the board members anyway. Even almost-entire municipal boards warring with other boards.

None of it is helpful. None of it is productive. Old grudges rarely are. Almost every time, the only end result is unhappy residents, decisions that are never made, projects that are never completed, old perspectives that won’t budge, and entire communities who pay the price.

What’s nice to see, however, amidst all this ego gnashing and chest-beating, is other board and community members caught in the fray, who are trying, come hell or high water, to mend fences, to build bridges, to grasp the euphemisms by the scruff, give them a good shake and remind them that there are real livelihoods at play here.

We are talking about the future of our communities. A lot of lip service is paid to “cooperation” and to “working together” — it’s a battle cry of politicians looking for a seat in office. The hard work, the work of hearing people and making a real effort to understand their point of view, and then building a community together, that is, yes, the holy grail of civic life, but also not an entirely unreasonable thing to expect — that the folks driving the boat can rise above petty squabbling to work together toward common community goals.

So, a plea to all the local politicians in all our coverage areas — please put your petty arguments and old baggage aside and concentrate instead on the many issues facing the communities you represent. It’s important business, running things and caring for the needs of the taxpayers and citizens you took an oath to serve. Please try to work together.