LIVING IN A BUBBLEThis is a featured page

--Our local, state and national leadership has failed most of us.
By Jim Miller

Our economic and political leaders are living in their bubbles of economic security, good income and a high energy consuming life style. They are following the “It's all about me” philosophy, but give lip service to the plight of those of us whose bubbles have burst. They rationalize that those who are suffering job losses are just “unlucky”.

Many astute writers are ringing the fire bell. The fire is on the outskirts of town and headed our way. However, most folks continue to play cards or watch TV or go to work, “The fire won't affect me.” Before the fire consumes the whole town, we ought to ride the fire truck to the fire and fight it with all our means.

Here's where we are now:

  • Oregon Department of Transportation, clears out the camps of the homeless in Corvallis and probably elsewhere, to “save the plants”. These pogroms are reminiscent of what Stalin did to Russians and what Hitler did to the Jews. What ODOT did is nothing short of a form of ethnic cleansing. ODOT is greased by those who pay fuel taxes. Our money financed the hatred which officers of ODOT must have against the most defenseless members of our society and who are in the most need. We need to change the leadership of ODOT before they invent other ways to injure selected target groups.
    • In many school districts, enrollments have dropped, leaving whole schools empty. Why not turn these empty buildings into homeless shelters? These converted school would function as shelters, training centers and work dispatch centers. We can turn the ball fields into community gardens.
  • City, county, state and federal employees enjoy pay and benefits at about 150 to 300% of folks with comparable jobs in the private sector. Yet no sacrifice is asked of these well-paid government employees. Why not an across-the-board pay cut of 25% and use the savings to create and maintain homeless shelters? That would burst the government employees' bubbles and bring some reality to government attention.
  • Governments keep the planning wheels turning. Citizen groups join in planning for a better future. This is good. It takes months, and in the case of the Federal government, years to develop the plans, which are generally flawed and delivered way too late. This is not good. These planners are generally the ones living in their safe, secure and comfortable bubbles. The walls of these bubbles are opaque, making it hard for outside reality to be observed and measured.
  • The planners are also given to “group think”. This is part of social networking where an idea or bit of “social glue” is seen as the center piece of the group cohesion. To become and remain a member, everyone has to adopt the mantras, ideas and rituals of the group. If a member disagrees, he or she is cast out of the group. Hence, no criticism of the group leadership is permitted. Such is a formula for failure.
  • The plans are developed around unworkable programs, or are delayed so long as to become irrelevant to the problem at hand. Delay is also costly, because the longer the stew is in the pot, the more things are determined to be needed and are added. Costs soar and the end result is either scaled down or further delayed until more funds are raised. Delay is also costly in terms of membership; many folks quit because they are tired of waiting.
  • Funding the implementation of plans is very tricky, even in the best to times. We now face the national economic meltdown, which makes funding the implementation of the goals even more unlikely. Yet the planners continue laying down goals. This “feel good” approach to planning is simply a group hug with little connection to reality. Group hugs are great in terms of social networking, but if that is the extent of the real operation of the group, then nothing or very little gets done in a timely manner.
We are facing a change in leadership at the national level. Let's create a similar change in leadership at the local and state level. Either the current leadership steps outside their respective bubbles, or we change the leadership in favor of people who are ringing the fire bell and are ready to board the fire truck and go fight the fire. We need to mount some recall elections.These elections will only succeed when the bubbles of a majority of the electors have burst. Of course that change will be way too late because the new leadership will have to deal with exhausted political and economic resource.
Jim Miller
jimmiller5417@yahoo.com
December 11, 2008




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