Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:59:59 -0400
From: Lot Voller
Subject: Memo to Mr. West: expanding one’s mind is good —
Last week a fellow who goes by the chatlist name “Tom West” made a humorous post claiming that Mayor Randy Voller, who is my son, has proclaimed through his speech below to be “godlike” because he uses the word “apotheosis” in reference to the Chicago Cubs.
Well Mr. West, if you are worried, as his father I can allay your fears— and let’s be frank— all Chicago Cubs fans should be deified for their stubborn belief in a potential World Championship. Didn’t you get the memo?
Ok, all kidding aside, the metaphor refers to the concept of change and/or the *expansion of consciousness* as referred to in the works of Joseph Campbell* *and others.*
*Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth*
And really, what is wrong with the people in Chatham County and North Carolina expanding their minds? Is that an idea we should fear and mock? I would think we embrace the concept because it is *aspirational*.
I have attached the comments from last week below:*
*Voller’s Public Comments to the Chatham County Board of Commissioners:
6/20/2011*
Greetings. I come before you as a private citizen, a fellow elected official
and the Chair of the Chatham County Democratic Party. I empathize with you
and I honor your service our community. In fact, I believe we chose to do
this because we all want to continue to enhance our community.
I do not believe we are at war politically. I believe that we can reconcile
our differences in the pursuit of common goals which serve and better our
community.
I believe we are in an evolutionary period for civil society that ultimately
will reconcile how we as a species will sustain ourselves and the biosphere
in the future.
The great question is how we will manage the endeavor and what our
overarching philosophy will be.
We must be all willing to consider that some of our ideas work in the
abstract, but not in practice. Our beliefs will become “means tested” and we
will experience a shift in perspective.
I personally had such an apotheosis in 2003, when I actually came to believe
that the Chicago Cubs would win a World Title in my life time. My
perspective has been adjusted. I now realize as a Cubs fan that it is not
just about the elixir of victory, but the shared journey of disappointment.
The Cubs will never be the Yankees—which is “ok”.
I ask that we consider such a similar shift when we evaluate the meaning
of
our local government and its reason for being. When we throw out fancy
consultant business terms like “streamlining”, “optics”, “core functions”
and “synergy” we need to remember our metric for the business of local
government. We are a non-profit. We should provide value to our citizens and
the business community. Our measurable is not based on the pursuit of net
profit, but rather on outcomes that are directly connected to our quality of
life.
In the “Death of Common Sense” author Philip Howard has an excerpt from a
1937 report on administration given to President Roosevelt:
“Government is a human institution…It is human throughout; it rests not only
on formal arrangements…but even more upon attitudes..It is certainly not a
machine…What we want is not a streamlined, chromium trimmed government that
looks well in the advertisement, but one that will actually deliver the
goods in practice.”
People matter. The spirit matters. In Deus Machine. The ghost in the
machine.
—
Lothar A. Voller
Pittsboro, NC
Major, United States Airforce (USAF), Retired
Former President and current fellow Institute of Industrial Engineers
Board Member, the Advisory Council on Aging for the Triangle J COG
Lifelong Republican/currently a conservative Democrat