MOTHERLODE
Bad behaviour gets more media attention than good
June 18, 2007
Lorraine Sommerfeld
In February of last year, Allie Weatherbee of Brantford was walking to school for an early morning band practice. At a crosswalk, she watched a cab career through a red light, and broadside a car driven by a woman.
Allie ran to check on the woman and help her from her car. She next ran to the cabbie, who had suffered a mild stroke, and started medical assistance she'd learned being a cadet. As others called the police, the woman noticed her car was on fire. Allie went back to the woman's car and managed to stomp out the flames with her feet.
Allie was 15 at the time. She gave police a matter-of-fact statement of events, picked up her backpack, and made it to school on time. Several months later, she was honoured by the sea cadets with their second highest honour – she laughingly told me the highest is awarded posthumously.
I'd offer up a link for the ceremony, but the media blew it off.
But Allie did finally get her moment in the media sunshine. A year later, with her historic Brantford high school threatened with closing (the school, Brantford Collegiate Institute, is June Callwood's alma mater – must be some bold-woman vitamins in the water), Allie was one of a group of students who organized a peaceful walkout to protest. Promises had been broken as politics were being played, and Allie, dismissing the "ridiculous" (her word) antics of some stone-throwing students the previous day, knew they needed a more mature approach.
So, several kids organized a thousand others. There was music and a barbecue to keep things controlled. Allie refused to interfere with a scheduled Grade 10 literacy test ("our beef was only with the school board"), so actions were suspended until it was completed.
For this, the media showed up: TV, radio, newspapers. And for her level-headed efforts, Allie was rewarded with a misquote. "They said I called the trustees a bunch of jerks, which I never did. Why go to all the trouble of trying to make our point responsibly to throw it all away saying something so stupid?"
There is a glint in her eye, though. At 16, she still knows the world is what she makes of it. With an 85 per cent average, this Grade 11 student plays seven instruments, has been a sea cadet for seven years, sings, acts, volunteers and works part-time. She's hardly sitting around waiting for her headline, good or bad.
But it is troubling to consider just what kind of behaviour is good enough to garner positive attention. Why work hard for recognition – and we all want recognition – when you're more likely to make people notice you by flipping off a photographer? And make no mistake, we have officially arrived at the point where absolutely everything is captured on film.
I'll take one Allie over 10 Paris Hiltons any day. While there seems to be a preponderance of those strenuously exhibiting their self-awareness – among other things – it is not until they discover an awareness of others that they can start contributing.
Allie handled both sides of the publicity equation – the total lack of and the erroneous – the same calm way she handled both events. The irony isn't so much that the wrong message got the most attention, but rather her motive would have been same regardless.
Despite the nonsense that pollutes much of our media, what if it's not, as Allie already knows, about publicity?
If a kid does something good, and there's no one there to record it, does it still make an impact? I hope they know it absolutely does.
Lorraine Sommerfeld appears Mondays in Living and Saturdays in Wheels. Reach her via her website lorraineonline.ca.
Toronto Star