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Little Minds Warp Great Ideas
Joseph P. Bottini, December 20, 2017
A great idea and little minds go ill together.
Sophomoric thinking can take a great idea and warp it into an idiotic proposal. The only people who might see merit in it are those who are positioned to profit, economically or politically; and some poor souls who have not the conscience to manage authority.
I have been told it is a done deal; it is political. What is political? If we take the definition from a good dictionary we have our answer. It reads: “relating to or affecting interests of status or authority in an organization (government) rather than matters of principle.”
We simply need folks in authority to rise to the level of a statesmen/women.
Anyone can descend to a politician’s level and make decisions that are in one’s self interest. It requires a person to tap into the nobility in us all (spark of celestial conscience) to step up and risk popularity, reelection and/or the disdain of members at the club.
Someone once said, “ . . . I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” It was folks like this colonist who gave us a chance to establish a “free and independent State”.
To rise to the heights of “celestial purpose” requires a courageous, righteous, compassionate, high-minded person. A rebel was in vogue in our early history. All founding fathers were rebels - for the just cause of liberty. They formed a government style that had never existed.
We might want to renew our understanding of our democratic republic. It began with the Mayflower Compact. It begins: “In the name of God, Amen.” It continues, “ . . . combine ourselves together in a civil body politic . . .” Then proceed on to the Declaration of Independence and read: “We hold these truths to be self-evident . . . that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . .” Continue on to the United States Constitution and read: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, . . . and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, . . .”
These documents show us the intent of those who helped mold this “great experiment” known as a democracy (democratic republic) to entrust power in the people. Folks would make their own laws. Government would be based on the consent of the governed - keystone of the American political system.
Historians refer to our founding documents, and the system of governance created by them, as the cornerstone of a type of “civil religion.” Local folks who had a direct stake in the outcome decided local matters.
Print the good and questionable qualities of each hospital location in a newspaper ad to inform the citizenry of ALL THE FACTS. Then let people decide what is the best location for a county “state-of-the-art” medical complex. People empowerment, maybe.
Email: Joseph P. Bottini, Oneida County Historian
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