Rob's blog

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." These famous words, penned by Thomas Paine in December of 1776 in "The American Crisis", were important enough that Gen. George Washington had them read to his troops before their famous crossing of the Delaware River. The words argue that service to country is more important than personal comfort or difficulty, and those who stand up to help contribute to the liberty of their country deserve the thanks of all those who live there. So how do we determine who is best to stand in those places of authority and decision making?

John Adams, one of the principle contributors at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that produced the Constitution, had a lot of thoughts on that subject. He published an pamphlet in 1775 entitled "Thoughts on Government." It in, he laid out his fundamental beliefs in relation to government. Let me summarize and share a few of them:

• The happiness of society is the end result that government should be most concerned with.
• If government does its job right, the happiness of the individual will be the result
• The government that best secures an impartial and exact application of the law is the best form of government
• It is not possible that every person can take the time to research and be educated about every issue to vote directly on them
• Therefore, we must select the "most wise and good" to represent us. The greatest care should be used in this area.

Adams was strongly for the government that best deals with the issues of its people that leads to their happiness and prosperity. Government should be set up so the power remains with the people, but also to be responsive to their needs and have the power and authority to allow and maintain those activities that lead to the happiness of the people and individuals. To acheive this, he proposed having three separate branches of government - a legislative, executive and judicial. Without going into his many arguments in explaining his reasoning, he wanted to keep government honest and limited to its powers so it would preserve the liberty of the people.

In our city government, we use the same representative democratic principles that formed the foundation of the United States. We use a form of government termed the "Council/Manager" form which provides for a directly elected legislative body, an appointed executive and appointed judges that must be reappointed every four years with the advice and consent of the legislative branch (city council). The City Manager is appointed by the people's representatives and maintains his position only as long as a majority of the council approves of his performance. Thus, it is much easier to remove a city manager as an executive officer than it is a mayor or other similar officer by having honest and wise people who represent the community on the city council. This also makes the functioning of this office more resistant to outside political pressure from groups in the community who may not like the manager's enforcing of council rules and policies and want to remove him from office.

For the whole process to work, each member of the government must be of "high moral character" and wise enough to make correct decisions on behalf of the people he represents. Whether appointed or elected, the same restriction applies. How the government is organized has a great bearing on how this works out - with appropriate checks, balances, oversight of responsibilities and close attention to detail, government that functions best to fulfill the premise laid out in the preamble to the Constitution that guarantees us the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" can fulfill its mission and provide the blessings of prosperity to us and our posterity.

As citizens of these United States, we must stand up in defense of our country as those early patriots mentioned by Paine did. How can we do that today? By carefully searching out, standing up, or promoting those who are fair, responsible, honest and wise individuals who can serve their community and give back for having received so much. Do not be a fair-weather citizen of this country - take every effort to support the cause of freedom and liberty that so much blood and suffering has been sacrificed for. Become educated, help those who share your values and vision for the future and who will vote on your behalf, and get out and vote for them. Without each citizen in this country doing this, the blessings of freedom that we take for granted may be put in jeopardy as those who are not virtuous, honest, or wise but who have money, are well connected, or have influence are elected and stay in place in spite of all efforts to remove them. This may be the most important function the average citizen of this country may perform, and every November, the opportunity presents itself again.