City of what-now?

For many years now, Topeka has attempted to bolster its public image with an advertising campaign urging Topekans to become better people by being upright citizens. They did this with a campaign called “City of Character” or something like that.

The media blitz amounted to nothing more than occasional television or radio advertisements, as well as lots of billboards, which gave some quality the Topeka government thought should be promoted, and a brief explanation of the term’s meaning.

Unfortunately, in each of the characteristics I’ve ever seen them try to promote, they got the meaning of the term wrong, or added extraneous language which added something to the term which isn’t part of the definition of the term.
A week ago, I saw a billboard in the campaign which said:

“Punctuality: Doing the right thing at the right time.” Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, punctuality is only the characteristic of doing something on time. Can a prostitute be punctual in keeping an appointment with her pimp? Surely so. If I tell the police that I will murder someone at 5:00 pm, and do so at 5:00 pm, I have murdered in a punctual fashion. Nothing in the meaning of punctuality actually means doing the right thing; it simply entails doing something on time.

I’ve seen them get the meaning wrong for dozens of terms from the first one I ever saw (beneficence) to the most recent. Just this afternoon I passed another billboard listing the latest character-building word: Tolerance.

Tolerance was defined thusly:

“Tolerance: Realizing that everyone is at varying levels of character development.”

Now, again, the city government got it wrong. Tolerance, as a positive characteristic, is probably never really used this way. We aren’t urged to tolerate the varying character development levels of people. We are urged to tolerate those with differing opinions, backgrounds, ethnicities, or faiths. Further, suggesting that our differences (the very things we are supposed to tolerate) are the result of varying levels of character development is deeply offensive.

Can you imagine trying to function with that mindset? No longer are disagreements the result of issues on which reasonable minds might disagree. Your opponent no longer becomes a person to reason with, but an unfortunate holdback who needs to develop his character a bit more to rise to your level.

To make matters worse, the Topeka Capital-Journal has a special section devoted to the City's latest word where they explain what the word means more fully. I'll quote the CJ-online explanation here for full effect:

"Tolerance is:
Not confusing what is right with what is popular
Expecting the same of myself as I expect of others
Looking for ways to help others mature
Accepting my own unchangables and the unchangables of others
Listening before I form an opinion"

Thoroughly shocking, in my opinion. Of the five explanatory phrases the TCJ adopts to explain 'tolerance' only 1 (number 4) comes close to the actual meaning of the term. The others may be valuable lessons for people to learn (though some of them are dangerously un-nuanced), but they do not explicate 'tolerance' or give examples of tolerance.

I’m starting to think that the city government should listen to my suggestion here. The next billboard should read:

“Dictionary: That big thick book the city council ought to open before dipping their fingers into the waters of philosophy.”