Community

Living with other people nearby. In neighboring homes. Yards. Abutting streets and blocks of homes. People who live in connection with other people, knowing their kids, watching families grow up and away from the area.

People connecting with people. Nodding at one another walking down the street or meeting in a grocery aisle. Maybe at church, too, or a concert at school in which their kids are co-participants. Maybe it’s at the high school gym during a basketball game. Or a PTA meeting.

Little League games, youth football, soccer – whatever activity that draws people together – there they meet and greet.

Knowing we are members of the same community. Sensing a common link in our lives.

Towns, villages and cities share the same dynamics. Small communities are more aware of those dynamics than larger towns or cities. We see the same people many times over. We talk about happenings and realize how they affect us – as well as how we affect the happenings!

Our neighborhoods thrive when we thrive. If we work to make them good or even better, we recognize the cause and effect of those actions. Same with town business. If we read the newspaper and understand the issues, or are concerned about them, we have a voice in the discussions leading up to decisions that affect us. We even can vote on these issues from time to time. Certainly we vote frequently for the people we entrust with the business of our community. The Fire District people; the Library organization; the Park District and the City Council. Even the school board. We have voting rights and opportunities. We exercise them. Choosing a person to get our vote in an election is one thing; perhaps more important is understanding the issues those elected people will have authority over to exercise what they think is right, and how they should vote to support the well-being of the community. Those issues are connected. Understanding them is difficult.

Elected officials are confronted on three levels of reality. First are the facts of the situation – the operating considerations, personnel, costs, regulations, hoped for results; second are the personalities and professional viewpoints brought by the staff who work with the issues on a daily basis and understand how they function in the big picture sense; and third, the viewpoint and understanding of the electorate – the voting public.

Those three realities are very real. The problem arises when all three are out of kilter with one another. The staff feels the long view consideration demands action in one way, while the financial and regulatory obligations present difficult realities to live with, and the voters don’t understand all of that, and don’t feel they need to understand that. Yet stability of the community is best served if all three realities are brought into focus.

Voters elect people to handle their public business. They authorize the officials to act for them. A board of commissioners, or Library board of trustees or a city council is an elected board of directors charged with the responsibility and authority to act in the stead of the voters.

The elected are given a position of trust to act for us. We voters are given a position of trust to elect others to do our business. We are in trusts; both are. Voters need to understand issues and persons well enough to determine how well the business will be transacted over time.

These issues are not one time only. They exist in a continuum of time. Managing issues in the now will affect the future. How well we managed issues in the past defines the shape and urgency of the issues today. Consistency of action and intelligent application of knowledge over time makes a huge difference in public affairs.

We may not always agree with how elected officials vote in any one situation. They always will make some people happy and others not so!  That is the nature of public work. The yardstick on their performance is not in the present; it is in the longer term.

Also, the work of the elected official is not done; it continues. Voters do not always understand this. But they need to.

In the local community we can see the working parts of our community life up close and personal. In county, state and national ‘communities’ we cannot see the working parts so easily.  All the more reason to pay attention to the local scene.

That is a valuable piece of why our community is important to us. Are we paying attention?

January 22, 2014