JOY ALONG THE WAY: STOP IT, OR JUST DO IT

Too many know what is wrong with our culture. Too few offer definitive, workable plans about how to correct it, or, offering plans, see that they do not work. When all governmental and societal plans thus fail, why not try the unorthodox?

I have an idea!

My hidden agenda is to get rich selling franchises for message-bearing T- and sweat shirts. I would have white T-shirts for summer, sweat shirts for winter with "Stop it!" in red letters emblazoned on them. A subsidiary could be bumper stickers with the same message in glow-in-the-dark lettering. There would be no explanations of what it was the message wanted stopped. It would become a great mystery like "Where in the world is Hard Rock Cafe?"

Folks, over coffee cups and beer mugs, would offer opinions: "I think it means sexual harassment," "I think it means stealing," "It means killing, lying, cheating, raping, stealing, telling half-truths." "It means weaving recklessly in and out of traffic." "I think it means eating high cholesterol foods."

The message of what it meant might become so intriguing groups would be formed to discuss it -- Stopsetts, Stoppers, Stopples?

Maybe the short, crisp demand would become so popular that pundits, instead of going into long lists of what is wrong in our culture and offering a labyrinth way out, would cut right through their rhetoric and say, "Yes, that's right. Stop it!"

I suspect that my parents were not the only ones who could correct their children's misconduct by employing this cogent command. There was no stoppage in their activities to explain why noisily chasing each other around and around the dining room table, turning over chairs, making the sugar bowl and spoon holder tremble, was not the accepted thing to do, but "Stop it!" put an end to it with the implicit lesson quickly learned.

Would "Stop it!" substitute now for those who never learned the "Thou Shalt Nots?"

Nancy Reagan's "Just say no" to drugs hasn't worked very well. Too gentle. "Stop it!" in red, might come across consequences more adamantly, make one wonder what the consequences could be if the activity was not ceased. Short potent replies and commands have been historically effective. Recall "Nuts," and "Fire when ready."

Let's explore a scenario to see how this might work.

One does not go into franchises without a feasibility study. Suppose someone is about to "lift" a rock concert cassette and place it in his-her pocket when around the corner of the counter looms someone with a white T-shirt on that says, "Stop it!" He-she, startled, looks around distractedly and sees numerous such silent messages "shouting" at him-her. Would the cassette be quickly replaced? Not, if around the other corner, came a husky lad with a Nike T-shirt on that silently spoke Nike's slogan, "Just do it." The culprit is frozen in time, trying to make up his-her mind, like the donkey between two appealing bales of hay. Time enough, maybe, for the floor detective to get there and "correct" the situation.

Far out? Yeah. Tenuous? Yeah. Why? Nike has a head start on me (Hope for my project diminishes). Also, their message of "Just do it" means to quit quibbling about a thing, get on with it. Do something good, of course. Put the ball in the goal. Run the last mile. Eat the broccoli. Vote for the best qualified. Feed the hungry, visit the lonely . . .

My idea grows wobbly. A positive approach to doing the right thing is stronger than the negative to stop doing the wrong thing. Although (Hope creeps back in), there may be some who would misinterpret Nike's slogan and just take the cassette, dump the broccoli. Maybe (hope diminishes again) some who would interpret "Stop it!" as meaning to stop doing the things you sometimes grow weary of -- feeding the poor, paying the taxes, eating the broccoli.

Am I caught between two bales of hay?

REJOICE!

Jean Bell Mosely is an author and longtime columnist for the Southeast Missourian.