Friday, Sept. 19, 2003 | 4:25 a.m.
I HAVE BEEN remiss. It is time for a discussion.
It took a spirited breakfast meeting with friend and colleague, Jim McGlasson, for me to realize that I am not doing all that I can to help lead our community toward a better tomorrow. The realization came while lecturing Jim about what he could do to effect the same goal.
That's when our own shortcomings usually hit us, when we are discussing someone else's. In this case, Jim had asked how we break into what appears to be a politically circular argument which continues to spin downward toward a breakdown in our democratic system of government.
Hold on a minute, it isn't that boring. After all, we started out talking about taxes, yours and mine.
Jim is one of my more "conservative" friends. By that I mean a person who believes himself to be fiscally restrainable. He is also one of my more responsible friends. By that I mean a person who understands the role of government in people's lives and the relationship people have to one another in this grand democratic experiment of ours. He is also completely rational, which separates him from a significantly small but very vocal part of our society.
The topic of conversation was the recently enacted tax package that our Legislature cobbled together at the last minute that gives new meaning to the law of unintended consequences. What was intended by the not-so-bright lights in Carson City was to avoid taxing the big boys and find the ways and means to burden the little guy, once again, who works hard in Nevada. They succeeded.
The culprit, we agreed, was an insecurity on behalf of the decent lawmakers -- there's not much you can do for the ideologues and panderers except to find them another line of work -- and a can't do attitude on behalf of the voting citizens.
The lawmakers are insecure because if they vote the way they know is right, they believe the voters will punish them. Therefore, they don't vote their consciences and their intellect and this government of, by and for the people suffers.
The voters have the wrong attitude because they elect people to represent them -- people who are more knowledgeable about such matters, who are willing to commit the time to deal with them, and who become expert in the various functions of government and how best to provide the services the people want and need -- and then they punish them for using that intellect, knowledge and experience in ways sometimes disagreeable to the voters.
That adds up to a bunch of do-nothing politicians with their jobs intact, or some courageous representatives of the people who are voted out of office at the first opportunity. In either case, the public loses.
So how do we fix this mess we have allowed ourselves, heck encouraged ourselves, to get into?
The first thing is to start thinking for yourself and not be content to believe the first thing you hear on your "news show" of choice because those people are getting paid to rile you up, not make you think.
The next thing is to always ask the next question. Don't let the politicians or the pundits get away with the 30-second sound bite. Ask them what it means, how to change it or what alternatives there are. Be inquisitive, they hate that!
The next and probably the most important thing any citizen can do is get involved at the water cooler, the dining room table or the corner bar, wherever good conversation can be had. Don't be content to let your friends and neighbors believe that which is not true, that which is not proper and that which a few minutes of discussion can set right.
We all have a stake in this representative democracy. That means we each have a responsibility to not only elect good representatives at all levels of government, but to encourage their reelection, even when they vote opposite of our desires from time to time.
It is unreasonable to expect our public officials to agree with us 100 percent of the time but it is reasonable to expect that however they vote and act that it is done in a responsible, rational way that can not only be defended but explained to us.
And, if our elected officials will take the time to explain that which they do and why they do it, they should be able to expect our support for their honesty, candor and conscientousness.
Life and democracy live on a two way street. There are expectations and responsibilities and you can't have one without the other if you want this democracy to work.
Jim understands and he's going to do his part. That's how democracy works. One citizen at a time. Who is next? Be inquisitive, they hate that!
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