Larger than Life Issues

COVID Pandemic: so many news articles on COVID. What’s happening now, who is it happening to, hospital capacity tightening, deferred medical treatments for non-COVID cases, vaccination rates, efficacy of vaccines, and so many other themes. Exploding on the news to baffle the mind. Keep the deluge of information coming. This is full disclosure, right? Wrong!

As a citizen, I want to know, and need to know, these things:

1.       New cases on daily basis

2.       Daily death cases

3.       Trend lines of both, and their analytic significance

4.       Regional trendlines on national basis

5.       Advancements in finding effective cures, medicines and vaccines

6.       Long term significance of pandemic and potential effects to be absorbed by society

I am certain there are more issues that can be reported but I only need the above topics. I expect data and science driven information as well, with little or no manipulation of the fear factor.

The pandemic has been a challenge for the world community. It is not over. There are many effects yet to be realized and managed for the common good. An orderly presentation of all this material would be appreciated by the reading public. This is also a reasonable approach for responsible journalism.

Funding the Government: our government operations – all levels of it, municipal, county, state, regional and national – are continuous and important. They need professional management and effective leadership to be worthy of our investment. Diddling with any agency funding or mission, directly reduces the effectiveness of that agency. Political intervention rarely is needed or effective. Congress has a job to do, but it requires steadiness, long range planning, and clear definitions of their role. Continued funding is required for operation stability of agencies. Congressional meddling ought never be allowed to affect ongoing agency operations. Our system of public health, safety, criminal justice, education and most everything else ought never be held captive by political arguments. Those are best relegated to a thoughtful process separated from funding and policy procedures until they are well settled. At that time, changes affecting existing agencies must have a transition period in which planning management changes to adapt to the changes mandated by congress.

Division along Party Lines: party ideologies have gone beyond good governance. The process of governance has been shaken. Career personnel have moved away from their home agencies to fulfill their personal mission and vision for the nation outside government. They transition to the private sector and usually find a poor fit. Their passions for justice and care for fellow citizens has been disrupted. By politicians who are not interested in we the people, only their own personal power and fortune. It appears that political parties have ruined their own futures. The time has come to find alternative means for ideologies to compete while doing little or no damage to the governance of society’s daily life. What might that look like? Hmmmm.

Who gets Credit? Who gets Blamed? blame and fame seem to be the game being played in the press and political corridors. The truth is blame falls on the political players who deliberately upset progress toward solutions and compromise. No compromise means no progress in managing any issue. It is a failure of congress that this situation exists. Compromise is a difficult process to live through. In a democracy, however, it is a requirement. Give and take is needed to make decisions. That is not blame or fame. It is work. Badgering the main players with judgments of wins and losses is a childish game played for no one’s benefit. Only outcomes that serve the long-term interests of the nation and its people is the measuring rod of success. Or failure. Not individuals. That falls on the shoulders of the decision-making body that has mucked it up.

December 21, 2021

 

 

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