Despair. One word that sums up for me our national condition. What
drives the despair for one person doesn’t reflect another person’s situation.
So much despair. So much angst.
Or maybe not for you? Yes, there are those among us who seem
immune to the problems we face today. I don’t know if they are the lucky ones,
or just asleep to the challenges we face. How can anyone not see and react to
the challenges we share?
I guess it depends on what your interests are. If you are an
artist, you will see the world one way. If you are a business person you will
experience the world in another manner. If you are a teacher or social worker,
you see the social implications of much of our surroundings. If you are a
philosopher you know the world in entirely different ways. Then there are the
perspectives of the engineer, scientist and political minds. All have a
different take on the social conditions we live among.
What to do about these things? How to get more people involved
from such an array of differing positions and perspectives? Well, that’s the
challenge in a nutshell, isn’t it? From many viewpoints, how do we arrive at a
focused, common definition of the problems needing our attention? Once that’s
accomplished, what then do we do about the problem to lessen it’s impact at the
least, or better yet, repair the problem so we can go on to other pressing
issues?
The complexity itself is a challenge. Most of us stop
forward progress at that point, realizing the enormous futility we will
experience if we were to dive in to make a difference.
But then, that’s the larger challenge: finding people
willing AND able to get involved and labor through the difficult tasks of
reaching consensus among people of differing views.
Most folks refuse to get involved. Most wish the problems
away. Still others insist the job is for someone else to do. Maybe a government
official or agency should do it? Or maybe, we don’t trust those folks to handle
the issue?
That last paragraph – that’s the larger issue, isn’t it?
People unwilling to get involved and do what needs doing? Yes, it is difficult
work to do. Yes, it takes special skills and talents to do the work, to muddle
through the disagreeable debates and ignorance of the details. But all of these
matters need to be attended to if progress is to be made. Research, fresh
thinking, and positive responses are needed to fuel progress. It takes courage,
discipline, patience and a smile to get past the negative.
To see a living example of this, just observe the current
primary election campaigns. An army of people are spouting words and images of
issues, making claims, and attacking one another. The attacks are personal.
They are slanderous and demeaning. They are dirty. They make the reader feel as
though they are sneaking a peak into a forbidden place. Much of it is
detestable.
How did we get to this place? Ours is a democracy where each
of us has a voice. A democracy in which we have a stake in the process of doing
governance and achieving desired outcomes for the good of our society. Why is
this so difficult to accomplish? Why do people make this so personal and
negative? Why not focus on the outcomes we truly wish would occur?
Why don’t we help people with good ideas achieve a position
among us to do the work? Isn’t that what elections are all about? Helping
talented and willing people get elected to positions where they can make a
difference for all of us?
I’ve been elected to public office. I’ve been subject to
lies and distortions by opposing candidates who want the position for
themselves, not the work that will make a difference. The work is hard. It
requires a selfless search for facts and ideas and cause and effect
relationships. When all of that is assembled, then the organization or government unit begins to build
a program, policy or process that will address complex issues and make good
things happen. It is possible to do
this. I’ve seen it happen.
And the people involved were good team members willing to
assist each other to understand the issues and the tools available to manage
those issues. Teamwork. Common good. Positive outlook. Can-do faith in self and
others. That’s what it takes. The successes come from this.
The failures – the challenges of enormous problems – come
from people who don’t understand the issues and make for larger ones. Our
public pension systems are an example. Good people made bad decisions, year
after year, despite knowledgeable people volunteering expert advice and counsel
on how to avoid those pitfalls. But politics and power relationships diverted
those good people from doing the right thing. Decades of this occurred. I know.
I was part of the process of trying to get state officials to not slide down
the slippery slope of underfunding pensions. They didn’t listen, or chose to
ignore the actuaries, math geniuses and management gurus. They did their own
thing and now we face perhaps $100 billion of unfunded pension liabilities.
This is a management problem; and a governance problem.
But it can be handled intelligently if we the people insist
on it. It will take volunteers, talented people, and those dedicated to seeing
it through. Ask those folks to step forward. Let’s see what they can do. It
would help if they felt we were helping and supporting them. After all, this is
our work, too.
March 13, 2018
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