Campaign Wrap Up

The calendar says September 19 was only 45 days ago. It has been 45 of the longest days of my life. Not is a bad way but in literally long hours of hectic, interesting and stressful days. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Here are some things I’ve learned in the last 45 days:

Some of the side streets of Clinton are among the worst streets in the developed world. Seriously. I've been to some pretty run-down places in Europe and certain streets in Clinton put the side roads of Slovakia, Poland and Croatia to shame. To wit: Parts of Cleveland Avenue, 14th Street by the Arboretum – one of our finer City institutions no less – blocks long stretches of Roosevelt and McKinley, so say nothing of 18th Avenue N. by my own home. This situation is the product of decades of neglect. It is going to take at least a decade to fix.

People sense that times are changing; that with great changes come opportunities. The citizens of Clinton know that we are well positioned to take advantage of those opportunities. They also know that it will take a change in mindset and a change in the way of doing things if we are going to be a leading city in the Midwest instead of a laggard.

The citizens of Clinton are weary of the same old way of doing things. They want a city government that is more transparent and more engaged with the voters. Far too many people feel --rightly or wrongly -- that important decisions are back-room deals and the results presented to the voters as fait accomplis. Improving this situation is mainly the responsibility of the city staff and city officials. But a big part of fixing this also means getting our local media more involved. It is not good enough just to report literally what is said every two weeks. The job of the media is to provide all-important background, analysis and context for voters. We have to demand more of both the city and the media.

Finally, the people of Clinton are tremendously optimistic, honest, engaged, informed and open-hearted people. Through all the hard work, it has been a great pleasure to get to know Clinton better. It has been an honor to have many place a great burden of trust in me. It is no wonder that Iowa has become the place where the process of picking our next president begins.

That same burden of trust has been placed on all of us by our founding fathers. I urge all of you to pick up that burden for the half-hour or so it will take to vote on Tuesday. In these troubled times, where so little is being asked of us in support of such vital causes it is one thing we can do that matters the most.

Whatever the result on Tuesday night, I look forward to continuing to work and serve in this wonderful city on the Mississippi. I hope that this election can be a new beginning of community involvement. Because I truly believe that together, we really can make Clinton a great place to be.

----------------
Now playing: The Pogues - Young Ned of the Hill
via FoxyTunes

Campaign Blog: Vaclav Havel on Morality and Environmentalism

Posted from the campaign site. Link and discuss here.

I had the great honor of campaigning and conversing over beers with Vaclav Havel in 1990. If there is anyone in the world who can speak from a position of moral authority it is him. Here is a boigraphical sketch of Havel.

This week Havel wrote an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, "Our Moral Footprint." What does morality and environmentalism have to do with city government, you may ask? Havel writes:

We must return again and again to the roots of human existence and consider our prospects in centuries to come. We must analyze everything open-mindedly, soberly, unideologically and unobsessively, and project our knowledge into practical policies. Maybe it is no longer a matter of simply promoting energy-saving technologies, but chiefly of introducing ecologically clean technologies, of diversifying resources and of not relying on just one invention as a panacea.

I’m skeptical that a problem as complex as climate change can be solved by any single branch of science. Technological measures and regulations are important, but equally important is support for education, ecological training and ethics — a consciousness of the commonality of all living beings and an emphasis on shared responsibility.

Either we will achieve an awareness of our place in the living and life-giving organism of our planet, or we will face the threat that our evolutionary journey may be set back thousands or even millions of years. That is why we must see this issue as a challenge to behave responsibly and not as a harbinger of the end of the world.

What Havel is saying is something I completely agree with; that we cannot fix our society's problems -- from the environmental crisis to corruption in government -- with technical or proceedural changes. The changes have to begin with us. We need to rediscover the moral and ethical core in our society.

This moral rediscovery most certainly does not include the culture of moral judgement-making that is so popular among certain political parties. No, it must first and foremost be, as Havel points out, the consciousness of the commonality of all living beings and an emphasis on shared responsibility.

Part of that shared responsibility is the duty of Americans to be involved in their own government. That is the genius of the dream of the Founding Fathers -- that free people can govern their own affairs through involvement with and holding accountable their elected representatives.

----------------
Now playing: Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
via FoxyTunes