Tag Archives: Politics

A Man and His Word

Posted on by
4

Some of you may be too young to remember a time when “your word was your bond”.   I won’t tell you that those times were easier, or harder, than the times we are now experiencing.   What I can say is that at one time we placed a very high value on a person’s word.    Whether upheld or broken there was reward and consequences associated with a man’s words.  It is sad to think we have “evolved” to a point where the word is simply a mechanism to garner support for one’s own purpose, position or gain.   Even sadder is that we as a nation don’t stand up and demand accountability once associated with a person’s word.   I believe part of the problem is a disconnect between what someone says and the barrage of media interpretation that follows.   For example, in politics, if a candidate speaks in the morning by mid-day the media has already added its own interpretation.   Sadly, depending how it plays in the polls the candidate may or may not issue a correction even if it contradicts what they originally said.   Most media “experts” pass their interpretation on as fact and shoves it down the throat of an American audience.   Is it any wonder that American’s are confused, disgusted or fed up with what they see in the media?   There is an ongoing debate calling segments of our society “disenfranchised”.     Let me suggest that the real word is “disengaged”.   Many Americans, including myself, are angry as we look at what is going on in Washington but we cannot rollover and play dead.   You snooze you lose.   It has to stop….let’s get reengaged.   Let’s start with the one area that regardless of our race, color or creed we can agree on.  Let’s reaffirm that a person’s word is, and should be judged as, the essence of their character.   It is not some piece of malleable crap to be, molded, modified, taken lightly or spoken without consequence.  We Americans are smart enough to know that regardless of the shape, height or color, crap still stinks!   

Here is my suggestion for a beginning.  Let’s let our elected officials, and candidates, know that we will hold them accountable for their words both past and future.   Be fair and let them all speak, listen to their opinions, contrast what they say with what you know, ask your questions and determine how you will reward their answers with your vote this fall.  Turn off attack ads unless you are willing to take the time to investigate the merits of such indictments.  Let’s claim our right as American Citizens to reestablish the importance of the vote through the value we place on a person’s word.    

I am going do my part in removing the media bias to some very fundamental promises made by our current president.    In his own words:

 

Transparency and Open Government

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

SUBJECT:      Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government.  We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent.  Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.  Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.

Government should be participatory. Public engagement enhances the Government’s effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge. Executive departments and agencies should offer Americans increased opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and information. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public input on how we can increase and improve opportunities for public participation in Government.

Government should be collaborative.  Collaboration actively engages Americans in the work of their Government. Executive departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector.  Executive departments and agencies should solicit public feedback to assess and improve their level of collaboration and to identify new opportunities for cooperation.

I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with the Open Government Directive.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by a party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

This memorandum shall be published in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

(Source:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment)

 

Ok you decide.  How true has the President been to his word?   Step back, think, validate or challenge.

Personally I believe that there is not an American alive who wouldn’t embrace the promises outlined in these words.    The promises presented here are without media bias, what do you think?   Both Presidential candidates have called this election a critical juncture in our nation’s history.   I couldn’t agree more.             

On a final note, notice the second to last sentence of the presidential statement above.   Do you recognize it?   It is a disclaimer.

Fragmentation by Design?

Posted on by
10

There are many issues facing our country and each issue carries varying degrees of significance to each citizen.   It appears that the White House has been able to take these issues, personalize them for a given audience, and acknowledge them in a way that suggests a level of concern and compassion.    There is probably not a day goes by that President Obama isn’t meeting with groups where he speaks on topics specific to the audience rather than the broader issues that are facing our nation.   Examples include speaking to students about loans, to women about contraception or corporate roadblocks, to labor about job creation/protection, to elderly about entitlement programs, to veterans about ending the war, to Latinos about immigration and so on and so forth.   Taken on their own merit every one of these issues is important.  However, the point is not how we feel about a particular issue affecting various segments of our society we know how it feels.   We live it daily.   So is there real empathy and compassion on the part of the President for those in the audience; I would like to believe there is.  Or is this a superficial approach where the real underlying motive is to appeal to the parts?  Remember in mathematics the equation; the sum of the parts equals the whole?   In politics is the hope that appealing to the parts equals re-election?   Is this fragmentation by design?

Let’s step back and think.   We can all agree that each segment of our society has important issues that affect them personally and us as a nation.  In order to become a great nation again every one of these issues need to be taken seriously and addressed over time.    Unfortunately many Americans are frustrated by government infighting while so many issues affecting our lives go unresolved.  It appears that our faith in “hope and change”, as fragile as it was, has been shattered with the reality that the system in place to fix problems is itself broken.  It is a system where ownership of a problem is someone else’s responsibility.  It is a system in which our elected representatives couldn’t even agree on the time of day if they were standing in front of Big Ben.   So is it any wonder that when the President of the United States acknowledges issues, that are important to us personally, that a normal knee-jerk reaction is “wow someone can at least identify that there is a problem”?   Not so fast.   Though identifying the problem is the first step, it’s the easy one.  It, however, gives me no confidence that identifying an issue will result in change if there is no solution offered to at least debate.    A credible approach to problem solving is identification of the issues, prioritization based on importance, bipartisan debate on solutions, and finally implementation for change.   However this approach to problem solving requires strong leadership.   Mr. President that is why we elected you and that is what you promised.   I for one am disappointed as I feel that we are on the great ship USS America with a captain who knows how to align deck chairs but is afraid to take the helm.  It is a little late to tell us that your only experience in a boat was at the amusement park.   My advice Mr. President, standup, be decisive, lead with conviction but for the sake of our nation lead!  If you do, many will get behind you as our gain would be yours.   If the challenge is too great, or you don’t have the skill set, please step aside and exit gracefully this fall for the sake of this nation.  Hint: Start with the economy.