Who Will Coach Our Team?

By: Mr. Wilson on February 7, 2007
104.1 The Blaze hosted a forum for the mayoral candidates, and this summary of their responses is worth a read. They talk a bit about the issues -- the same issues they've talked about many times before -- and they make some promises, but there is not much new to learn. I do want to comment on one thing, though. At the end, the candidates were asked to grade the city's "economy and quality of life". The responses were:
  • Yant: C
  • Beutler: C, but he’d give its government an F
  • Svoboda: C
It is becoming increasingly clear that the candidates are convinced that negativity buys votes in Lincoln. And you know what? They're probably right. Lincolnites, for whatever reason, are in a funk right now. I have commented on that before. The candidates are feeding off that negative energy -- and in turn they are fueling it. Negativity has its place. A community like Lincoln can't afford to sit back and act like life is perfect and there are no improvements to be made. The desire to improve is necessary. But negativity can also hamper the very improvement we're seeking. What are the benefits of tearing down local government? Hopefully improved government, of course, but the side effects are decreased public confidence in and satisfaction with government and its employees. What are the benefits of ripping on the local economy? The desire to improve it, sure, but why would big businesses want to come on board a ship that all the passengers claim is sinking? I would love to vote for a candidate who knows how to plan for the future without tearing apart the present and the past. The candidates should be ashamed of themselves for giving life in Lincoln a grade of C. There is a lot of room for improvement, but we live a darn good life here in Lincoln. In my years of sports officiating this has become very clear: Teams whose coaches build upon the players' strengths are more successful than teams whose coaches dwell on the players' weaknesses. What sort of coach do you want to put in charge of this talented team of ours?

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Neal
February 7, 2007 at 10:13PM

Great post.

In order to hop on the ever-popular “Mayor Seng is destroying Lincoln” bandwagon, one has to make the intellectual jump that Lincoln is being destroyed, which requires quite a bit of self-delusion.

It’d be a little more honest and constructive to just discuss individual mistakes or different ways of doing things rather than labeling every move a catastrophic harbinger of doom, as seems to be the trend.

Whether you like them or not, it’s a bad sign when more elected public servants decide not to seek reelection due to the level of negativity and lack of civility.

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