Happy New Year!

May this be truly a happier new year than 2017. The past year has been a real poop. In health, finances, future outlook and political outcomes. The latter has been a real downer mainly because of the nonsensical nature of the battles. Real damage to the national infrastructure; blaming and bullying, too. The very nature of this white house is negative, not positive. If we the people are to survive well into the long term future, we must be focused on desired outcomes, not the how, the who, the when or why. What is it our people need? What are the building blocks of a self-sustaining society? What is the definition of ‘quality of life’ most of us agree with? For those who disagree, will the difference harm them or the rest of us? If not, we will have found the perfect balance of agree-disagree.

Instead we focus on difference. That is the crux of the problem. I have a conservative acquaintance who thinks my position on gun ownership is wrong because the US Constitution guarantees the right to bare arms. He thinks I don’t agree with the constitution. He is wrong on that point if that is what he thinks. I agree with the constitution. I think it has been interpreted far too strictly in favor of gun ownership and the chaos that has resulted.

What I really am focused on is the number of gun deaths in the US. I want that number to decline. I don’t know what we have to do to make that happen, but I don’t want to undo the constitution. Surely there are other ways and means to reduce gun deaths in America without upsetting gun owner rights?

If that is so, then when do we get started on finding the solutions? Instead of being obstructionist, what can we do that will lead to positive outcomes?

The same is true about everything else conservatives and liberals argue over. How clean is our environment to be? And how do we get it there? Do we outlaw all rules and regulations that protect the environment in order to trim the reach of government? Or do we actually agree on the ways and means to achieve the outcome of a clean environment, one that is healthy for you and I and our kids to live in?

And education: what do we have to do as a nation to produce educational process and nurture for all of our citizens so they are productive, creative, adaptive to change, and happy? Is the current system working? Or not working? If it is working in some capacity but not others, what do we do to fix that? If we don’t do anything, what are the likely outcomes? I’m suggesting a cost/benefit analysis here buffered by the values we can agree on to define what the outcome ought to be.

And infrastructure: what are the common elements we need for public activity to function safely and properly? If some elements benefit just a portion of our society, ought this be paid for by all of us via some factoring into the price of goods and services being produced from such infrastructure? Or is the common good so expressed in the outcomes that we all ought to pay for the infrastructure via tax structures? We need to do some thinking on this issue, don’t we?

And all the other elements we commonly attach to governance structures: what are the functions, what are the desired outcomes we want, and how do we manage our affairs to achieve the results we want in an economical, practical manner?

Governance is a management construct. It performs functions for defined purposes. The electorate needs to be aware and up to date on all of those issues so it can guide the elected office holders as they make decisions that manage the government enterprise. Those elected do not have unlimited power; they are limited by us. It is always the right time to make certain our powers are current and in effect. It is the elected who must take care to conform to our wishes.

In America we the people have the power. It is a sad reality that we the people have done a poor job of doing our jobs. Government has run amuck in many cases. It is in the throes of even more ‘amuck’ that before, thanks to the poor understanding of the issues by a minority of the electorate.

Let us resolve to do better – much better – in 2018. Without that resolve we will accomplish nothing. And the know-nothings will have once again achieved the power to destroy what the rest of us have so carefully built over the past 300 years.

Be aware. Very aware. Or 2018 will turn out worse than 2017.

It is in our hands. All of our hands. We best learn how to talk to one another to make a difference in this new year.

Yes, happy new year, but work for it and earn the results!

January 1, 2018