We recently ran an article about the satirical Facebook page “The City of Valley” and how the creator(s) of the page changed their logo after being asked politely by the city council and mayor to do so.

Everyone involved handled the situation well, which is definitely surprising with an internet related issue. Civility winning the day doesn’t happen often when interactions are handled primarily from behind a username or press release, but luckily in this case, cooler heads prevailed.

This should set a tone for all interactions we have as a local and global community. Whether the scale of the interactions are micro or macro, there is no need to jump directly into anger or scorn.

In today’s world, it is all too common for conversations, especially online, to devolve from casual to catastrophic, those involved quickly becoming defensive at the first sign of differing opinions.

Since the internet is now intertwined with our entire lives, this kind of behavior has seeped into our face-to-face interactions as well.

Even without the keyboard as their sword and shield, people will cause a ruckus as soon as they feel uncomfortable or offended. That’s not to say getting offended is a bad thing, per se, but rather that getting concerned about something and talking it over with the offender, tensions seem to be high from the outset.

The Facebook page in question was designed to appeal to the light side of griping about where one lives. It’s something that has been done forever in every medium and is a source of laughs and valid ideas on how to improve an area.

On the other hand, it was completely understandable that Valley’s council took issue with the page using the official seal. Searching the keywords “city of Valley” on Facebook linked to the satire first, which to anyone less-than-internet-savvy can be confusing.

This issue had the makings of a serious problem, but because everyone involved resorted to discussion rather than aggression, it was solved as quickly as it began. That’s something we should all take note of.