Changing Scripts

Governance is a tricky business. It is encountered at every turn in social life. Our churches are governed at various levels. Most are national, some international. Many are of local governance with some association with a national organization; that relationship, however, is voluntary and a support role only; not a true governance association.

That’s churches. Then we have schools: public and private. Private schools are either non-profit or profit. Some are parochial – church related and mission oriented toward extending the beliefs of that church denomination. Schools run the gamut of pre school, kindergarten through high school, college and university institutions, and then graduate education, research institutions, vocational training schools, and so forth. Of recent vintage are the for-profit educational outfits who pretend to be a college or university but are in business to make money and not transform lives. They usually support specific industries on the fringes to lure new students into thinking that studying a few courses will gain them entry to a profitable career. Such results are rare. Just broken dreams, promises and hearts.

Home owner associations (HOA’s) have been around a few decades now if one ignores the cooperatives that existed in New York City around 1900, maybe before. Coops divided the ownership of the entire building among the residents. The operating costs of the building were merged and then paid for by all the residents based on the square footage of their housing units/apartments as a percent of the entire square footage of the building. Monthly costs were extensive; many thousands of dollars per month. Outright purchase of each home unit seems affordable until the monthly expenses were known. Back in the day you could buy a home in such buildings for $20,000 to $40,000 but the monthly coop fees might have been $5,000 or more; much more. Today these buildings and governance forms still exist; but the expense numbers and purchase costs are enormous. Coops, however, retained the right to pick and choose who was eligible to buy a unit and live among the residents.

HOA’s remain a modern day governance structure that is more strict than a local city government. They control just about everything in the life of a resident but diet and sexual practices. Regarding the latter, HOA’s may have mysterious powers yet unexplored, so beware!

Let’s see, more governance – Parent Teacher Associations (PTA’s), Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of America, Girls and Boys Clubs of America, and many other such development associations that parents flock to for help in raising their kids in a healthy manner. Or a supposedly healthy manner. How Boy Scouts feels it is healthy to teach discrimination to the kids is beyond me, but then it is their private organization to own, run and govern as they see fit. It is also my freedom to ignore them.

The associations and organizations we join, form and labor in throughout life are also centers of governance. We discover interests and talents throughout life and realize we need to connect with others with similar interests to better fulfill those interests. Each organization is governed by rules, by-laws, constitutions or other agreements – written or not – which we all agree to abide with.

Of course we have governance in our local fire districts, park and library districts, city/village/town governments, and county government. These are not voluntary. If you own property or rent residential space, you are governed by the local laws, pay accordingly, and obey with or without respect. The beauty of these government units are they are transparent. Their business is done in the light of day in full view of the governed. If you are interested in what’s going on in the town hall or park department office, just attend meetings, read the minutes of past meetings, and discuss issues with your elected representatives to those entities. Occasionally issues will come to light wherein the governed are asked for direct input. Questions are placed on an election ballot; such input is either known in advance to be binding or advisory. Either way the elected representatives will be bound to act in accordance with the wishes of the governed.

In addition to the governing entities included above, there are countless public boards and bodies we elect people to manage, and also state and federal governments. Being a democracy is far-reaching and hard work to maintain, monitor and vote intelligently. It requires our attention. We need to keep up with what’s happening. And that’s where the news media and journalists enter the picture.

Unfortunately the news media costs money no one wants to pay for so the news content is abbreviated to fit within media budgets. Sometimes sponsors are willing to pay more for coverage special to them so more of that is reported. We just don’t know how to measure the credibility of such reports.

Having said all of this, three things become evident:

First, governance is here to stay; whether the democratic model is fully supportable by the public is a growing question. There is more than a little doubt here; the public is tired of paying for anything, and they have evidenced laziness and unwillingness to follow the news. The public remains ignorant; not stupid, just ignorant. This must change.

Second, the media is not reliable in its current structure. To have value of fact, credibility, currency and access, the media must change. It is the major partner of the public to monitor governance so it all remains effective and credible.

Third, we all have something to gain by giving up some personal ‘power’. That is how public institutions are empowered: we give up something to get something we need. Taxes for libraries, schools, parks, park programs, and local governing entities. We get order, education, enlightenment and quality of life in return.

Although evident, these three things are in trouble and require maintenance and change. To do that requires how we view these matters, how we deal with them, and how we think and deal with them in the future. Scripts have guided us in the past. Scripts will help us find our way into the future. But scripts have to be researched and written. And they have to be agreed with to have any persuasive power and credibility with the public.

Who changes this script? When will it be written?

That is the business of the public. And we are the ones who will direct it. Only the smartest and most alert public elected officials will understand this. They get to remain to do the work. Others will need to be removed and new ones found to fill their place.

But who will lead this effort?  You?

May 7, 2015