Friday, November 13, 2009
One wing leads to unstable flight
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Ernest Bentley
Bentley, of Pilot, operates Old Town Printing in Christiansburg, which does printing for all political parties.
Saturday's political cartoon (Chris Obrion) in The Roanoke Times perfectly epitomized today's problems in our nation and commonwealth. It showed a one-winged aircraft piloted by a major political party about to take off with the pilot exclaiming "Yeehah! OK ... this could be the tricky part."
Apparently the party is about to take over our commonwealth's governance single-handedly without the support or advice of the other parties. That's unfortunate because presumably all of our parties have the best interests of our commonwealth at heart -- surely there is some middle line where everyone can cooperate.
Our nation, our commonwealth and our local governmental units have become preoccupied with political parties to the point that none of us votes for what is best for our governance. We blindly vote along party lines. Each election is nothing more than a Friday night's high school football game to see who will win and become the weekly (weakly?) standard bearer until next Friday.
Decades ago (but centuries after writing "all men are created equal"), the enlightened citizens of the United States elevated ourselves to the point that we no longer made decisions based upon race, religion (as long as we all worship Jesus Christ) or nationality (as long everyone speaks English).
We often forget our humble beginnings, that the U.S. is a melting pot created by immigrants from around the world looking for a better, more compassionate way of life where everyone respects but does not have to agree with their neighbor's beliefs. We forget that our nation was founded by immigrants from England, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, African slaves and other nations, even as we celebrate their music, food and culture in our communities.
For whatever reason, the human race cannot function without taking extremes on public issues. We have lost the art of reason and compromise.
In Virginia alone, we have suffered many, many generations of governors who have not been able to provide adequately for our schools, social services and highway systems because of the partisan gridlock in the state's General Assembly.
Never mind that our highways are inadequate for the traffic they are expected to bear, that our schools continue to cut back on qualified teachers, that our corrections department has neither the space nor the will to provide retraining programs for the incarcerated.
The bottom line for too many years has been written by the political party currently in power. If the one party proposes a solution, there is no room for compromise -- the other party will automatically reject the idea -- and no progress is made in our General Assembly. Today's political decision-making process has been reduced to a football game between two rival camps.
We no longer care for longer term results -- all that matters is who won the football game last weekend. We forget that no single political party has all the solutions -- we must work together to make informed decisions about our future. We must learn to compromise for the betterment of our nation.
Saturday's political cartoon depicted a one-winged airplane. It's up to all of our elected representatives to work together to create a balanced aircraft. And it's up to all of us as citizens to communicate our opinions to our elected leaders so they can make informed decisions about the issues affecting our daily lives.
Democracy is where a nation gets the government it deserves. If you want the best, then you must participate by keeping your elected representatives informed of issues important to you. And your representatives must act on this collective information if they are to remain in elected office -- regardless of party affiliation.
P.S.: Both gubernatorial candidates promised to solve our highway problems and reopen the rest areas within 90 days of their installation to office. Would you like to make a bet on either of these outcomes?
