A Life of Service

 

               As a young soldier in the early ‘80s, I posed this question, “First Sergeant, why do we call it ‘the service,’ when we’re in the Army?”

               My First Sergeant rolled his eyes, sighed the sigh of someone who must explain a simple basic truth to a slow child and growled, “Listen, you rock-wit-lips, being in the Army means a life of service. You serve the Constitution, you serve the nation, you serve the Army, you serve your commander, and last of all you serve me. Got it?”

               Even though I did not, I had been a soldier long enough to know that the only acceptable reply was, “Roger First Sergeant.” But over the next twenty-six years or so, I learned. Entering the Army, no matter your rank, was entering into a life of service, a life laid down to a higher cause. A life in the Army requires great sacrifice, even in peacetime. There are long hours, difficult and sometimes perilous training, frequent moves, long TDYs, deployments to uncomfortable places, and yes periodic deployments to combat. As soldiers we do those things because we understand that we serve a higher calling. We certainly do not do it for the great pay, and a difficult field-training-exercise in the winter with snow, sleet, and rain rapidly scuffs off any glamor. This is the same for all government employees. While most do not expect the dangers and rigors of military service, they all understand that they accept a calling to something more important than a paycheck or themselves. They serve their nation. Our politicians, servants of the people, need to relearn this basic truth.

               The continuing government shutdown provides fresh evidence of a group of legislators and executive branch officials who have lost sight of their true purpose in life, to serve the nation or people. Rather than take a deep breath and do the hard work of finding compromise and crafting suitable legislation which serves the nation not just their party, they would rather retreat to opposite sides of the aisle and throw soundbites at one another. Consequently, millions of needy citizens, our neighbors, will go hungry in this land and time of plenty. And we are the ones to blame, not them.

               We elected these men and women, and they are only doing our bidding. But you may say, I did not elect them to shut down the government. No, they did not run on that particular platform plank. But we did not elect them to work hard at finding compromise. We elected them to engage in slash and burn politics which suit our particular proclivities. There are numerous reasons we’ve arrived at this situation; but, I think the following are especially pertinent.

               We need to summon the moral courage to stop large donor contributions, no matter the source, to political campaigns. This practice skews politicians away from doing the hard work of crafting responsible legislation that serves the nation. Instead, they focus on appeasing the donors that contribute significant amounts to their campaigns. We must demand that congress pass stringent finance laws that close the various avenues for donors to circumvent restrictions., Freed from the shackles of large donations, legislators will find themselves freer to do actual work for the nation.

               We must abandon our love of political party and the associated disdain for those who think differently than we do. As a society, we must relearn the concept of “melting pot,” and what that really means. We must discard the selfish conceit that somehow I represent all of America and those who do not think like me must be some sort of enemy. Returning to my military example, the Army did not care one whit who I was, where I came from, what I believed, or who my parents were. All the Army really cared about was did I contribute to the ongoing completion of the mission. That mission focus forced all of us to abandon much of our personal biases and work with someone who was quite different. At the end of the day all that mattered to the Great-Green-Machine was, did we complete the mission. When we abandon our misguided desire that everyone look, feel, and think like we do, we will find that not only do we get along with each other better, but solutions to seemingly intractable problems are close at hand.

               We must hold our representatives accountable for work accomplished instead of soundbites delivered. We often punish our legislators for hammering our sensical legislation simply because it does not exactly fit our preconceived idea of good legislation. At the national level, politicians must balance competing regional wants. Successful legislation is often a matter of compromise. When we punish legislators for making a deal, we stymie the process of democracy. Sometimes we must give on one issue in order to get on another. Instead of applauding meaningless speeches and other forms of pandering to a perceived base, instead, we should expect our elected officials to reach across the aisle and craft good legislation that moves our country forward.

               As long as we embrace divisive party-oriented politics we will suffer as a nation. We must become a more literate thinking electorate. For far too long, we’ve let outside monied interests influence our thinking with half-truths, inuendo, and outright lies. Dominated by those who make large donations and other extremely wealthy, political parties have ceased to serve the public. Our legislators, like the Army, must embrace the rigors of a life of service. Of course, they serve in the marbled halls of the capitol, but true statesmen and women understand that they have undertaken a life of service to a great goal and that often entails long-hours and sacrifice…sometimes personal sacrifice for a greater good. An educated and active electorate which holds their representatives accountable may very well bring about the changes we desperately need in government, including elected officials that understand the concept of a life of service.