Saturday, January 30, 2016

Ugly Americans

We Americans are so ridiculous at times that we are disgusting.

We complain about taxes forgetting that paved roads cost money, sidewalks cost money, crossing guards and buses for our kids cost money.  

Somebody has to come and put out our fires.  

Somebody has to be paid to fill in potholes.  




We have indoor plumbing and sanitized water that comes to our house in pipes that have to be laid and, sometimes, repaired and replaced.  

We have schools to send our children where there are teachers who do many things for our children on their own time, at their own expense, who have to keep up with the latest information on their subjects and who expect to be paid.  
We're afraid of anything and anyone with which we're not familiar so we want an Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Marines to protect us.  We also want street lights so we can see people coming at night.  

Some of us think it's both necessary and appropriate to raise hell, from time to time, drink too much, get into drunken fights, cause property damage, steal from our neighbors, etc. so we have to have police and they expect to be paid  

Some of us like to read and to learn new things so we want libraries.  Some of us can't afford to keep up with technology with the latest gizmos so we want libraries to have some available for us to share there.

Many of us can't be trusted to drive in a reasonable, safe manner, keeping the safety and comfort of other around us in mind so we have to have signs and traffic signals to control our movements and to tell us what's ahead.  





Streets, sidewalks, schools, school buses, teachers, librarians, library books, magazines, DVDs, music CDs, public computers at the library, street lights, sewers, public water, gas lines, crossing guards, musical instruments at schools for kids to practice on, school books, school nurses, firehouses, fire equipment, public works employees, parks, road signs, traffic signals, sewage treatment plants, water treatment plants, sand and salt for winter roads, power plants, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, policemen, judges, bridges, reservoirs, all kinds of supplies, buildings, equipment, vehicles and employees to make all these things available.  These are just a few of the things our taxes pay for.

In the meantime, most of us have never been to a town council meeting, don't know who our local officials are and don't care, never communicate with our state or federal representatives because we want to believe they don't pay any attention (that's called self-fulfilling prophecy).  [They actually log each call, piece of mail, email by subject and stance - not quite personal, individual response but they are paying attention].  How do I know that?  Ask me.

But, we all have lots of opinions about how things should be done, what's wrong and who's to blame.

Just remember that when our Constitution was put into force (1789), the population of the United States was roughly 3.5 plus million; it's now almost 323 million.  You might consider the possibility that providing all those things listed above and more for all those people is extremely difficult and expensive.

I'm not saying there aren't inefficiencies and waste.  I'm not saying there isn't corruption. I'm not saying that we should overlook the distance that's grown between our representatives and us (whose fault is that?).

I am saying that constant bitching about "the government", as if it's some foreign entity instead of a bunch of institutions and people that we have some responsibility for having allowed or ignored in its growth and evolution.  And, looking at one (the president) or a few (our representatives) as the source of our problems is stupid and ignorant.  Bitching is not taking an active role in our government.  Voting isn't enough.  Thinking and worrying about what's wrong are wastes of time.

We need to educate ourselves about how our government works - no, not textbook stuff.  I'm not talking about how government works in general; I'm talking about how government works on a day by day basis; because that's where things happen.

How are decisions made in your town about where street lights are installed, where sidewalks are laid and what they're made of?  Why are there 6 people and 3 trucks at a road repair (just an example)?  Do you know why that pothole in front of you house hasn't been fixed in 2 months?

Who is your state representative?  How has he/she voted on the last 10 bills that were proposed?  What legislation is coming up?  Have you ever read your state constitution?

The same questions for the federal level? How often have you written to, called, or emailed your senator or congressman?  What's actually in the federal budget - do you know, have you ever seen a copy?  This is incomplete - the 2010 budget (the last I saw) was about 6 or 7 volumes: Budget Overview

Even our towns' management is a big, difficult enterprise.  If you don't understand and appreciate that fact, well, then, your opinions are based on absolutely nothing.

Of course, there's another much more fundamental problem and that's that some of us, when we think about these things, think about WE.  WE are a country.  WE share a Constitution that WE (sort of) agree is the basis our how our country is supposed to work.  But, some of us actually don't think in terms of WE or US; some of us only think about I and ME, or a much smaller WE that only includes people who think exactly like us.  Some of us aren't able to see the importance of looking out for the mass of the population out there with all it's diversity.  It's an US vs THEM way of seeing the world and it can only lead to conflict.

At any rate, almost all Americans live in a world where they have access to all these publicly funded things, in contrast to people living in little villages in say, Afghanistan, Africa, China, India, the rain forests where some people live in tiny structures, without running water, without sewage control, without garbage pickup, without sidewalks, paved roads, street lights, schools, etc.

So, complain away, just keep a little perspective.  And, educate yourself and be more active in your governance.  Did you know there are towns where you can actually fund a specific pothole?

You can mouth off here but I do monitor comments. 


Monday, January 18, 2016

Liberal vs Conservative

Let's take the politics out of the definitions:

From Merriam-Webster:

Liberal:

1. a. of, relating to, or based on the liberal arts <liberal education>.
   b. archaic :  of or befitting a man of free birth.

2. a. marked by generosity.
    b. given or provided in a generous and open-handed way.

3. obsolete :  lacking moral restraint .

4. not literal or strict .

5. broad-mindedespecially :  not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms.

6. This is the political definition and I'm omitting it.

Conservative:

1.  preservative.

2.  This is the political definition and I'm omitting it.

3.  a. tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions :  traditional.

     b. marked by moderation or caution.
   
    c. marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners.

Now -- read each definition, carefully. give some attention to your reactions to each definition.  give attention your the biases and prejudices behind your reactions. read each definition again.  

If you're honest with yourself, if you're open-minded, you'll find there's nothing wrong with any of these definitions.  I can analyze each of them for you but you should do that, and honestly, because I think you'll find your own biases and prejudices which are the more important things to give attention to than the actual definitions.  It's your biases and prejudices that create problems in the world; problems for yourself, problems for others.

I have no problem with any of these definitions except in the degree and intensity with which they are held - which, of course, makes me much more of a liberal than a conservative but I can actually claim each of these definitions to some degree, in myself.

Politically, I'm definitely liberal but I'm not a member of any political party which I would be happy to see abolished completely.

I believe that being either one or the other, to the exclusion of the opposite is to be quite insane.

I do take issue with one definition - definition 3 of Liberal - believe me, this is not confined to liberals, that's why it's obsolete.

What about you?  How do you really feel and think about things, and why?  If you never ask yourself....

[I cut and pasted the definitions, thus the font variations]


Thursday, January 14, 2016

Bureaucrats

Some people like to spew words that they often don't actually think about - lazy thinking, lazy communication.

In reaction to a Facebook comment I just read I wanted to actually think about a word used - bureaucrat.  It gets slung around quite a bit, without thinking.  In fact, in many of my jobs, I could easily have been labeled a bureaucrat.  Not that I would have cared much about such unthinking remarks.  It's a term often used for public servants, better names public employees.  Elected officials are, in my mind and vocabulary, public servants.  They are elected to SERVE the public.  Public employees, in contrast, are hired to perform a job for the public.  Both are often called bureaucrats.

I found this on Wikipedia:  “The term bureaucrat was first used in print during the French Revolution, by the journalist Fouilloux in the Père Duchesne in 1791, writing that the object most deserving of his disgust was the bureaucrat, harbinger of a "new mode of servitude”.



Yes, servitude.  In each, the public servant, or the public employee, their function is to SERVE the public.

A colleague once told me how she distinguished between the two:  the public servant has very few qualifications, training or often little experience required to get the job; the public employee, depending on the position they hold generally has a list of required qualifications, training and experience even to be interviewed for the position.

In either case, if a public servant, or a public employee isn’t doing the job you think they should be doing, first, be sure to determine if the job you think they should be doing is the job they are supposed to be doing.  In my experience, many in the general public have no idea what any particular individual’s job is other than their own because most of us are quite self-absorbed and don’t pay attention to the world around us.  Many in the general public seem to believe that anyone at any public desk is there to do whatever is asked of them by whoever asks.  If that same person were on the other side of the counter, you can be sure they would see how ridiculous their expectation is.

Before you go charging into any particular agency, be sure you are going to the correct agency whose purpose is to help you with what it is you need help with.  Then, be sure to find out what office and what individual it is that you should go to.  Then, before you make your request, take a breath and think and understand that you are one, single individual making a request that employee or official has heard, just in that day alone, more times than you might think.  They are people, just like you, who have undoubtedly already faced a slew of people who want something, want it now and, many times, are already angry when they approach this person with their expectations.

When you reduce an individual to a category, to a word, in this case usually negative, you behave toward that individual in ways that you are often unconscious of that will affect the outcome of your interaction.  Fortunately, good public employees, who have been empowered by management to do their job and given a work load that is manageable, will be able to overlook your shortcomings in your approach and will be able to help you or find someone who can.

If you don’t take responsibility for what takes place around you, you will always be disgruntled and rarely satisfied.

I was a librarian for most of my adult life and worked most often in public libraries.  My job was to help people find books they were looking for (which, btw, they should have learned to find themselves) or by answering questions for them by getting them information from various sources.  If someone wanted something our library couldn’t help them with, I often called around and found an agency that could help them.

My experience helping the public was as varied as was each individual approaching me for help.  Some people have no idea what they’re doing and are grateful for any help they can find; other people who have no idea what they’re doing can’t accept that fact and approach already angry and expect problems.  Some people are quite knowledgeable and only approach with requests that are more complex or esoteric and are open and questioning.  Some people are afraid for various reasons, are hesitant about asking any question at all but generally are thankful for assistance.  There are people, having gone to a number of agencies for information, impatient, suspicious and quick to anger resentment, who most often treat others with disrespect and are rarely satisfied because they don’t challenge their own assumptions about most things, including about themselves.

Like all human beings, there are good and not so good public servants and public employees.  Approaching either with expectations is a mistake.  If they aren’t able to help you, there’s always another.  Know what you want, communicate clearly, listen carefully and if you aren’t satisfied ask who else you can speak to.  If you don’t get an answer to that, ask for a supervisor.


I would agree that many of our politicians, who are public servants, seem to have forgotten that and have not been doing much of a job at all.