Pearls: Let’s go be doers

EDITORIAL MUG: Matt Pearl

By the time you read this, you’ll know the results of our local, state and national elections. My question for you: What will change?

We allow the sun to rise and set upon the outcomes of these events. Washington houses the sacred temples of our republic, and we wait with bated breath to discover what regime changes, what partisan stands, what campaign directives will dominate the storylines.

We celebrate our party’s victories, and we shake our heads at the other’s wins. We hail the election as the catalyst event that will either reward our children with a better tomorrow, or destroy any of their chances at living happy lives.

We listen to victory celebrations and concession speeches. We assure ourselves that things will get better, now that our candidate has won; we reassure each other that things will be okay when the other side wins.

Red states, Blue states. Majority, minority. Conservative, liberal. Everything is life-or-death. We are impatient, anxious, reaching always for solutions to our troubles by choosing correctly at the polls.

I love our political process. I possess my political leanings, which I share frequently in this column. But the biggest job I have in my life is not the task of holding politicians accountable: rather, it’s a full-time endeavor to keep my own imperfect self in line.

If we focused half as much attention upon caring for our families and communities, politicians would struggle to sell you many of their campaign promises.

What can a candidate offer people who are living in contentment, living their best lives at home and helping others through their struggles? Happy folks don’t need political powers outside their homes and communities to decide their fates nearly so much as unhappy ones do.

Don’t get me wrong: I care about how elections turn out, I care about which ideals we choose to follow as a nation, as a state and as local communities as we look to the future. I care about our roads, our schools, our freedoms and the ethical implications of our actions.

I care. A lot. But I just don’t take any real comfort that rooms full of politicians are guiding us. Do you need to be guided? Do you require that your leaders decide the best course of action for your life?

Do people do good things because of the rule of law?

Do people do bad things because the right laws are not in place?

Do people always know the good from the bad?

How about instead of continually working on scoring big election wins over the other half of the country, we all focused for a few months upon beating the problems at home and in our communities? Do you have to be elected to Jefferson City to make a better Albany or Union Star? Do you have to have enough votes to validate your desire to improve Stanberry or King City?

Who is stopping us from making our communities elite? Moreover, what politician that you and I just elected is going to do that job for us?

So I suppose my message is this: keep politicians where they belong – in those great temples of democracy, where the chambers of the State Legislature or the Congress in DC can observe big, overshadowing issues touching our republic.

But if you want a better life, do something. Build something. Make something. Help clean up something. Bring up good kids Kick a bad habit or two. Teach someone how to do something better. Feed a hungry person. Sweep a dirty floor. Paint parking lines or pick up trash. Play pitch at the neighbors’ house. Start a business.

Do something, because the most important hallmark of our liberties lies in our freedom to do the good that we wish to do. So don’t brag about your big wins Tuesday, or fuss about your grievous losses. Get your broom and get to cleaning. America has more thinkers than it needs: let’s go be doers.

Matt Pearl owns and operates newspapers in King City and Albany.