People Who Run Governments

   

      People who run governments should be sensitive, caring human beings. They should be elected officials who are keenly aware that their decisions have consequences, and their policies are going to produce outcomes, including many that will be grave in nature. Leaders, with these depths of understanding and sensitivity, do not take the task of decision-making or policy implementation lightly. Instead, the look at problems from every perspective, they consult with their supporters and their oppositions. They, with the help of their staff, role play, envision, or creatively construct the scenarios of the most likely outcomes their decisions and policies will produce. These steps enable them to see the wide range of effects ― from happiness and prosperity to misery and starvation ― that will result. This, however, doesn’t mean that these leaders would not proceed. Quite the contrary, if the decision or policy is absolutely necessary – in their judgment, they will proceed. But they do so in sensitive, thoughtful ways that demonstrates compassion and empathy for those who are likely to experience the pain and misery that will result from the decision.

     I thought about this a year ago as I sat at home looking at one of the republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly on television. A few minutes earlier the republicans in the assembly successfully passed Governor Walker’s 2011- ’13 budget plan. This republican stood behind the podium and announced with pride that they had done the tough job of balancing the state budget for the first time in many years. “Moreover,” he continued, after pausing a moment for his statement to have its full affect, “we are going to have $300 million surplus in our account a couple of years from now!”

     As I sat there I found myself thinking “This idiot doesn’t get it! He doesn’t understand that cuts to local governments, cuts to tax credit programs for the working poor, cuts to health programs, and other similar drastic cuts are literally ― death sentences for some Americans. Because of his decision and the governor’s policy, some Americans are likely to freeze to death, others are likely to die of heat exhaustion, others may die of starvation, and many will lose their lives because health programs were not available to help them. He doesn’t understand that the majority of Americans living in poverty are children. He doesn’t understand that children are the ones that are most likely to die when these cuts are made, and the deeper the cuts the greater the number of children whose lives are likely to end. He doesn’t understand that his decision and the governor’s policy will result in more Americans committing suicide, many others turning to crime and substance abuse, and many others becoming permanent wards of the state. 

     I suspect that he is going to go home and look at his children and tell them that he has preserved the future for them ― completely unaware that he has ended the future for other children, including some that are the same age as his children. I suspect that on Sunday he is going to go to church to worship as a God-fearing Christian. Then he is going to leave his place of worship feeling spiritually rejuvenated, but completely unaware that the Greatest and Wealthiest Human Being to walk the earth didn’t balance a budget on the backs of the poor and the middle class. He didn’t rob Peter to pay Paul. He didn’t promote his own self-interest or the interest of His rich friends. He didn’t come to Earth to take. He came to Earth to give the ultimate sacrifice ― His life ― especially for the children!  

by

James A. Porter