Musings at Altitude

I’ve gone from the serenity of the Kobuk River to the insanity of Washington DC.  We spent today wandering the “halls of Congress”.  [OK…that’s a little misleading…because most of the business is done in the buildings around the Capitol, and then they do the public debate and take the votes in the wonderful theater of the Capitol.]  Actually, we wandered the halls of the buildings around the Capitol, and met with those elected individuals whose actions (through the language they insert into legislation that they create) can change the way we do business overnight…literally…it’s often times that easy.

Many of the actions taken by our elected officials arise from faulty information and severe bias, which lead to flawed legislation and repercussions undefined till years later when the full force of those actions are realized in the often unintended and certainly unpredicted consequences of those affected by the debates and then votes of today.

In our democracy, we certainly have checks and balances so that no one leg of our government has the ability through its sole authority to do things indiscriminately to our citizens.  But that certainly doesn’t mean that folks can’t be hurt, and those most dependent on the actions of our balanced branches of government are often times left to the mercy of those uninformed or completely biased law makers.

So our job is to educate those who have one leg of that balance in their legislative hands.  Our job is to create visibility to the benefits that are obtained through specific legislation and provide forward looking awareness about the consequences of Congressional action when those ultimately responsible may not have any clue about what those consequences could be.

In this case, all we seek is status quo…don’t change a thing…take a closer look…get a deeper understanding of what those past laws were enacted to achieve…keep the opportunity alive to deliver even further against the promise that was ordained when the legislation was written and implemented in law to begin with.

And more than anything else, don’t fear, criticize and react negatively to success.  And don’t sneak in any riders in other forms of legislation to change things without that full understanding and very emotional debate.

Instead, see the benefits from the eyes of those who have benefitted.  Hear the stories of those who have achieved some form of success that may not ever have occurred otherwise.  Feel the hugs and embraces of those whose lives have been permanently and positively impacted by the goodness of past legislation.

And then smile for being the kind of leaders and the special legislators that this country needs right now.