Soapbox Saturday

Get ready for a doozy!

When your government isn't yours anymore...
by: Jody Dunn

"A government of the people, by the people, for the people..." from the Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln.

This high minded ideal, stated plainly by Abe Lincoln, to me, sets the standard of what the United States of America is really all about.

We choose everyday, through our routine and mostly mundane observance of its laws, to create an institution that binds us together: a government OF the people.

Further, we choose its guiding leadership from among our own number. Any one of us has the right, the opportunity and those us with the talent, have the duty to step up and serve in the leadership of our mutually agreed upon institution: a government BY the people.

Lastly, this institution has the self evident obligation to exist solely for the short, intermediate and long term benefit of its citizenry: a government FOR the people. Our government does not exist for its own self interest.

This rhetoric is not new or innovative, but is apparently easily forgotten by the leadership of our governmental agencies.

I am a long time active citizen. I have worked to raise money for our local Chamber of Commerce. I vote. I make an effort to meet personally those who represent me in government. I try to remain informed so that I have reasonable opinions about the things that effect me and my family. From personal experience I have seen how easy it is to get caught up in the idea that the "City" or the "County" or the "U.S." or the "PTA" for that matter are so righteous and wonderful that they deserve to exist and grow and be successful, well , just because it's so great! Who doesn't want to see their city grow? Or the economy expand? or raise more money for good causes? It's difficult to argue the point. OF COURSE THESE THINGS ARE GOOD. But it is the motive that matters.

An example…

I live, work, and play within the metropolitan area known as Mobile, Alabama. I love this place; I love everything about it. I am loyal to our area and a wild cheerleader of its greatness as a place to, well, live work and play. The City of Mobile as an entity resides within Mobile County, and like most urban areas in the last 25 years has experienced economic declines as white flight, and more recently black flight, have cratered the tax base within boundaries the city.

Note that the metro area as whole is BOOMING. Domestic and international businesses have "discovered us" and this area is becoming a hotbed of amazing economic activity. Visionary leadership on the part of our City, County, State and Business Community (Chamber of Commerce) has made this possible. Holy Cow, have they done a great job!

I think that's why it's even more heartbreaking given our successes and the obvious talent of those responsible, when those same people seem to forget whom they serve.

The suburbs surrounding the city are a growing field of commerce, sprouting to support the exploding middle class who are leaving the city to find cheaper, more comfortable housing, better schools, less crime, and fewer zoning restrictions. Clearly there are things that the City of Mobile must address within its current borders in order to remain viable as an urban population center. People move for a reason. These are difficult problems to face and cannot be solved overnight. There are hard and unpopular decisions that must be made, like laying off employees, attacking blight, overhauling whole areas of government. The long term beneficiaries of such a strategy are the people, who would come flocking from all corners to live in a City so well managed and committed to a dynamic future.

Unfortunately, it’s a lot easier to keep things just they way they are, but that's not possible when the tax base is RUNNING AWAY! The easy solution? Chase the revenue.

The logic of local leaders seems to go like this: The people have moved outside our boundaries and taking their money with them. They are happy in new houses and living good lives in self managed homeowner's associations instead of zoning commissions. They have safer children in racially integrated new schools. They are closer to where they work. Sure this is all great for the people, but bad for the "city" as an institution. So... let's
expand our borders to include the stores where the people shop so that the City can benefit from the sales tax generated there.

But wait! The majority of the people that shop in those stores do not want
to be a part of this city because of our aforementioned problems. Well, let's draw the new city borders so that only the people that will vote in our favor will be eligible to vote at the polls. Then we can get the revenue "for the city" regardless of what the majority of the people really want... In addition we can collect taxes from the entire county, not just city residents, since nearly all the big grocery stores will be inside the city limits. As a special bonus, we as city leaders won't have to face with any of the REAL issues that plague our fair City, the ones that are really hard and might not get us re-elected...

And so annexation moves forward.

When did the health of the institution (in the case City Government) and its coffers become more important than the happiness and overall success of the people at large? When did City Revenue become more important than fair and open elections? I would say it happened when our leaders became convinced that if it's good for the city, it must be good for all of us... instead of the other way around.

This whole upside-down notion of the role of government is not unique to Mobile. In fact, it’s pervasive throughout our country. In the short to intermediate term, it may not even be harmful. In the long term however, I think it reinforces the idea that our government is not looking out for us. We simply are here to feed the machine. It’s very difficult to be excited about the direction of our community when our government so clearly intends to betray our trust and abuse it position by manipulating the system to raise revenues for its own sake.

Our country is built on optimism; on the idea that with hard work anything is possible, that tomorrow will be better than today, and that collectively we the people are in charge of our own destiny. Every time our leaders put the governmental institution ahead of the common good, we lose a little of what makes us great.

We are blessed that so far our greatness as a people has been sufficient to overcome the weaknesses of our government. I pray that this is always the case.


P.S. Vote No to Annexation.