While Some Folks Are Complaining, Avoyelles Is Busy Building

By Dr. Jay Callegari

If you’ve driven down Highway 1 lately and missed the big metal building and offices going up, you might want to put the phone down and look out the windshield. Something is happening in this parish. Actually, a lot of somethings.

We have new construction rising out of the dirt, not just talk about it. We have a brand-new school being built out in Bay Hills, concrete and steel, not rumors and Facebook comments. We have local businesses advertising, expanding, and doing well enough that they are willing to put their names out there for the whole parish to see. Our student scores are up. Community satisfaction is up. Folks are coaching ball, volunteering, going to work, and living their lives.

And yet, if you spend five minutes online, you’d swear Avoyelles is collapsing into the Red River.

There’s a small group of people, very small, who sit on their couches eating potato chips, scrolling with one hand and complaining with the other. They complain about everything. The roads. The schools. The government. The weather. The same people, same complaints, every day, like it’s a full-time job with no vacation days.

They never talk about what’s good. Never mention what’s improving. Never acknowledge progress. If I were a psychologist, I might say they don’t complain because things are bad. They complain because it makes them feel better about their own miserable outlook. Dragging things down is easier than building anything up.

The sad part is they’re loud, not numerous.

Most people in this parish are optimistic. They get up, go to work, raise their kids, attend ball games, fish on the weekends, and look forward to tomorrow. They don’t feel the need to announce every grievance online to feel validated. They understand that progress isn’t perfect, but it’s still progress.

In this always-online world, we’ve got to remember something important. The comment section is not real life. The loudest voices are rarely the most representative. The silent majority, and it really is the majority, is doing just fine and is proud of the direction this parish is heading.

So maybe it’s time we stop letting a handful of professional complainers set the tone. Look around. Look at what’s being built. Look at what’s improving. Avoyelles isn’t stuck. It’s moving forward, whether the couch critics like it or not.

And if that bothers them, well, there’s always more potato chips.

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