One Coin: Two Sides

Oh go ahead, flip for it! Yes or no, up or down, in or out. Flip that coin and see what it is. Take your chances and let the natural world of chance decide the question. Or your fate?

The coin these days is not yes or no; rather it is Fear or Anger.

I say that with calm. I awoke this morning realizing that most people facing this presidential election season are disturbed by developments. Wondering how to distill the situation in a few words I decided on Fear and Anger.

Fear – a reaction to the unknown, the unpredictable, the unknowable. Hard-to-understand might be a phrase relative to this distillation.

Anger – a reaction to what exactly? Indecision by authorities? Continuing confusion in areas of normal certainty? Frustration over the unpredictable, unknowable or unknown?

Are fear and anger opposite sides of the same coin or actually the same thing?

I ask this because I observed both anger and fear on primary election day. Our polling place processed nearly 1300 ballots. Each one came from a citizen. Many acted as though they knew what they were doing but many more acted fearful, suspicious and angry as well. One lady stomped into the polling place early while daylight savings time delivered an inky blackness to the parking lot and indistinct entryway to the polling facility. She claimed it was too dark outside and she nearly tripped and who was going to do something about it? She said this to me because I was the first staff in line to greet and serve her.

I informed her we didn’t own the facility nor did we have access to the light switches. And besides, the parking lot is not lit anyway. We had to navigate the same territory with no lights, used our headlights to find the lock for the key to work in, open the doors until the light switches for the front area and hallways were found and switched on. Then we parked, entered the building and began set up operations. And that was at 5 am.

Her response: incompetence, everywhere incompetence; you should have taken care of that detail the day before.

We did report this situation to the Election Commission, mentioned the need for better lighting to the building owner when we saw him later in the day, and filed concrete suggestions for improvement via the Election Judges Report when closing the polling place late that night at 10 pm.

The woman’s anger and rudeness stayed with me. All day long her angry, twisted, frustrated face flashed in my memory. Exhausted that night, I fell into bed at 11 pm, well past my normal bedtime of 8:30 (give me a break, I’m retired!). Later that night, around 3 am, I awoke with the woman’s anger and thready voice echoing in my thoughts. I arose then for a bathroom break, and remained up to tend to the computer.

That is when I wrote my Wednesday blog. I searched the internet for voting results and learned them, realized the large turnout, and then understood why we were so busy. We had worked triple time throughout the day. We were constantly under pressure to keep the lines manageable. We interacted with voters as positively as we could but realized, as nice as they normally are, they were strained.

It came to me during the early hours of Friday morning, this morning, that the American voter is frightened, dismayed and angry at the turn of events. The campaigns mirror this anger and fear. People don’t understand what is happening.

Into this environment snake oil artisans enter to take advantage. Fear always sells. With that anger builds. And sales go through the roof. Always has; and I think it always will.

Americans think they won World War II. We were on the winning side and our participation in the war was critical to its successful conclusion. However, the war was won because the world had its future at stake. The world community understood this. And they pulled together and fought the war and won it for everyone else. Hitler and Japan were defeated. The forces of evil were defeated.

That was then. Today is now. We have not won a world war since 1945, 70 years ago. Meantime, generations have lived relatively happy lives. They have attended to their homes, families and personal interests. All was well with them. Until today they realize something is not well.

Our infrastructure is crumbling but congress doesn’t wish to replace it or fund the replacement. Education is not responsive to the tens of millions of people who have lost careers due to obsolete technologies, products and services. Other nations and their people are hungry enough for jobs and incomes that they have invented new products and services, and produce them cheaper than Americans could. So business has shifted to other regions of the globe. New investments in these industries have built solid economies around the globe. Living standards have improved globally. A fresh set of possibilities are present for once poor nations.

In America things are different. We still enjoy a high quality of life but the future  appears dim and dented. Worn around the edges we wonder where all of this will lead. And then a political campaign season descends upon us and we are teased, bullied and harangued about what caused all of this and what we can do about it. We learn what to fear and what to be angry about. But something is missing.

And I think that is accountability.

Each of us is accountable for our own lives. We are also accountable for making decisions that affect the lives of others and, in fact, the well-being of our nation. We exercise accountability by reading and researching what is going on around us so we know how to react productively and constructively.

If the future is to be bright what do we need to be doing along the way toward the future? Among the responsibilities are these:

• Educate my kids and our neighbor’s kids so they can think their way to careers and lives filled with meaning; educate people of all ages so they keep up with the changes happening around us at all times and thus assist them in realizing the need for career changes before they happen and make proper adjustments
• Maintain public infrastructure so our society continues to work efficiently; this includes schools, streets, sewers, water supplies, storm water management facilities, highways, bridges, viaducts, dams, power stations and energy grids of all sorts
• Retain inventive investment mindsets so emerging technology, scientific and medical breakthroughs are used productively. This is how we discover new things and create change. Education is how we learn how to adapt to change.
• Be interested in and involved in governance of our society. This means know and understand what is going on around you in your name. We are the citizens of our nation and thus own it and are responsible for it. What decisions are being made in our name? Why? What consequences will these decisions have on our lives down the road?
• Do not leave it to someone else to do the work or take the responsibility. This is your job, my job, our job together. It is not rocket science. We do not have to have an advanced college degree to do this. Common sense will suffice. That is, common sense will suffice IF WE KEEP UP WITH THE WORK. If we fall behind things get messy and confused. And that is where the fear and anger enter the picture. 

The Angry Woman Voter is a symbol and symptom of our time. She left important work to be done by others while she concentrated on her own life and interests. Unfortunately, others did the same and left the hard work to others and now they are disappointed because they see the destruction such avoidance has created.

Yes America, we have done this to ourselves. Our governance structure is in shambles because selfish people focused on themselves rather than the basics of our society. It doesn’t run by itself. It is run by people like you and me.

Best we pay attention and select the best and the brightest to do our work for them. Being on the board of directors of this enterprise, shouldn’t you pay close attention to how well they are performing?

Don’t blame the poll watcher or election judge for the low funding of polling places and dim lighting. That one’s on you and something you should have been paying attention to long ago.

March 18, 2016