A Second American
Revolution
The HR
Doctor recently took a trip back in time to consider some of
the political issues and tensions in
the America
of the 18th century before the
United States of
America. Such a journey is
made much easier by the fact that everyone of us owns a time
machine that is capable of taking us to the most exotic times
and places we might ever imagine. These personal time machines
live within the power of our imagination and the immense
capabilities of our brain. We can activate the time machine
with a book, a conversation, on a walk or in a crowded
shopping mall, anywhere or anytime: This wonderful machine is
always at our disposal.
Eighteenth-century America
was a time of anticipation, frustration and great
hardship. Life expectancy was about 35 years, driven by
high infant mortality and risks of death by injury. The
technology we take for granted today was not present 230 years
ago. The power for manufacturing or farming was derived
primarily from animal and human labor in a cottage industry
model. Generally, mass production was part of the future, not
the present, and most people derived their living from
agriculture or providing support services for an agricultural
economy.
People
came from all over the world
to America,
although many did not have a choice. Many did not survive the
slave ship journeys but many others found a kind of freedom to
escape debtors prison, worship in their own way, own property
and speak out in ways they had never imagined in old
Europe.
Part
of this freedom has been forever linked in American history to
the concept of the frontier. It was possible to escape
to the frontier from the frustrations of life in a city or
life with complications and uncertainties that troubled the
individual. An old folk song contains a verse, I
heard my neighbors rooster crow early in the day; I heard his
axe beyond the hill, and now I am bound away. For some men
love the city life; some men crave the town. I belong in the
Arkansas wood;
thats where Ill settle down.
Underlying all of the ingredients
thrown into the cauldron
of America
was an abiding reliance on the individual, the neighbor and
the local community. Based on this reliance and the resilience
to meet the unknown, with its many dangers and setbacks, came
a distrust of government authority, especially a government
which was distant.
In
fact, our country was originally founded based on the
frustrations and distrust of the way in which
America was
managed as a British colony. How ironic that it was the
opposition to rule from far away with little influence over
the actions of the government that led the Founding Fathers,
and no doubt the Founding Mothers, to create a new answer
form another government!
In the
period of the American Revolution, one of the driving
philosophies opposed to British rule was the concept of being
taxed unfairly and without fair representation. Local control
was being replaced by control from thousands of miles
away.
The
lack of a responsive government and interference with the core
freedoms and sentiments of the American colonists provided the
kindling and the sparks which triggered the Revolutionary
War.
Now,
fast-forward your time machine to the present day. Once again
we find the frustrations of taxation most of us would regard
as unfair and in need of major change. This is true not only
of the income tax but also of the bizarre system of property
taxation found in much of the country. In these systems, one
residence has property taxes capped with limited increases
permissible, but the identical house next door, which was just
sold, has significantly higher taxes.
Unfunded and caseload-driven mandates
hobble local governments ability to generate and sustain the
very kinds of policies that are responsive to local needs.
Entanglements with the federal government start out
well-intentioned but often end up disruptive and damaging to a
local community. As anyone involved in local government
management
in Florida
can testify, working with the well-intended FEMA can be the
equivalent to a dental office visit without
Novacaine.
The
diluting of the 21st century version of the local Minutemen,
the National Guard, can have future unintended and serious
consequences for a local area or region. Certainly, the same
can be said for the lack of a cohesive national vision and
policy to effectively deal with the sad fact that many
millions of people are without health insurance and affordable
prescription drugs, and the equally sad overabundance of
affordable semi-automatic weapons.
Some
of the same ingredients of unresponsiveness, frustration with
taxation and a sense that few at the federal and even the
state level are hearing the demands for action coming from
local governments are similar to the environment, which was
developing along the East coast of the American colonies over
200 years ago, notwithstanding a much different economic and
technological base.
It may
well be time for another American Revolution of federalism
revisited one that reasserts and spotlights the fact that
local government is where the action is and where a public
administrator can really make a visible difference. Tip ONeil
was correct that all politics is local. However,
the HR Doctor would add,
if you have the proper state or
federal permits.
I
wonder how a frustrated group of colonial activists could
handle staging a 2007 version of the Boston Tea Party. There
would have to be state and federal environmental protection
permits or waivers. There might have to be a parade permit.
The participants would be in danger of arrest and prosecution,
not because of their political views, but because of
violations of the no-dumping rules. Then there are fish and
wildlife habitat concerns and waivers of liability to be
signed by the organizers along with providing proof of
insurance.
Certainly such an event would, for at
least 23 seconds, receive attention from the hordes of
reporters, pundits and talk-show personalities who would
magically show up and interview one another before, during and
following the event. Apparently, pollution of the airwaves and
the printed media is not covered by any permitting
rules.
Phil
Rosenberg
The HR
Doctor http://www.hrdr.net/
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