Pat Bohn wrote:
As a Northsider, I might add that the school board members didn't vote to
close schools that any of their children attend or the schools in the
neighborhoods where most of them live.
> [...]
what school board members shouldn't do is somehow make those schools and
neighborhoods more important or deserving then any others.
Why not? Why on earth would someone with the power to keep his or her
child's school open not vote that way?
Elected officials have their own self-interests and will operate on
them. It is unrealistic to expect otherwise. Our challenge is to
show them how their self-interest aligns with ours so that we can
work together. This doesn't happen on every issue but it happens
more often than we think. If I don't want my child's school closed,
I must convince the school board that it is in their self-interest
to keep it open. Appealing to goodwill or some abstract sense of
"right" is not effective.
Of course, another option is to run for office as well and vote in
our own self-interest.
Self-interest isn't selfish. A shrewd politician and a committed
citizen will always look for ways that his or her self-interest
aligns with others on either side of the aisle.
I believe one of the fundamental reasons that our political system
has broken down into partisan deadlock is that we don't really
understand this anymore.
David Greene
The Wedge
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