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Little Minds Warp Great Ideas
Joseph P. Bottini, March 3, 2018
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 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 the 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. People 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!
Joe Bottini, Oneida County Historian
Email: Joseph P. Bottini, Oneida County Historian
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