Interdependent

Living in Ohio, I thought I’d be safe writing about snow in the middle of February, but it’s been in the balmy sixties this week, so apologies for the bad timing of my intro. Growing up in the Buffalo area, I walked to school in the middle of winter with snowpants under my skirt (since girls had to wear skirts in the “good old days,” the snowpants were removed before entering the classroom). More than fifty years since that little girl made her way through the tunnel-like sidewalks, I still remember the riding sidewalk plow a city employee operated throughout the community. With no school buses, nearly all the children walked to school, headed home for lunch, and then returned for the afternoon session, so the safety of the sidewalks was a priority to our small city.

I’m not sure when the decision was made to eliminate that service to Tonawanda residents, but the mini-snowplow is no more in my hometown. It’s doubtful the decision-makers were swayed by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “Let every man shovel out his own snow, and the whole city will be passable.” Instead, my guess is it revolved around budget.

But Emerson’s words do raise a basic question as to the role and responsibility of government, whether local, state or federal. Who should be responsible to shovel the sidewalks and the streets? Who should sweep the streets, repair the streets? Who should be responsible to keep people from living on the street? Who should protect our neighbors who don’t have enough income to live on? The children, the elderly? Who should keep watch over those who have murdered another? Who should educate our children?

What about education? I’m glad that here in the United States, the lovely Madelyn Simone can go to first grade in a public school without her parents making direct payments to the school for her education. When I met a Salvation Army colleague from Ghana a few years ago at an international conference, he faced a terrible decision. He had taken in his deceased brother’s children but didn’t have enough money to send his young children as well as his nephews to school. If he didn’t pay, they weren’t educated. I’m grateful I never had to make that choice.

Normally I don’t frequent a website called “cracked,” but I recently read a fascinating post that made a lot of sense to me. It compares our view of government based on whether the individual is a city dweller or a resident of a rural area. Loey Nunning understands: “In a city you realize interdependence and cooperation are not only the actual cornerstones of civilization, but also that they work amazingly well when governments are well-run and well-funded. Government becomes not some abstract boogeyman that wants to control every part of your life, but the reason you can take a hot shower every morning with clean water. Paying taxes isn’t government theft, it’s just doing your part to make sure the wheels of society keep turning.” I may not be especially pleased to write that check on April 15, but I understand the need for those dollars to be pooled together to provide services to all people.

Yet our founders understood that “taxation without representation” didn’t work. That’s why our government includes a “house of representatives” to listen to the people and make decisions in the best interests of the people. In today’s world, “the people” have a lot to say, and I for one am hoping for productive, respectful conversations in Ashland, in Columbus, and in Washington, about how to keep the wheels of society turning for all people.

Because as Nunning noted, we are interdependent. Yes, Mr. Emerson, we still may be able to clear our own sidewalks, but as I understood as a child, it makes sense for one person to shovel the snow for all of us, while another teaches our children, paves our roads, and protects our streets. Government then becomes the tool to coordinate these efforts. As such, the government’s continued responsiveness to the voices of all people enables us to cooperate efficiently and effectively in each other’s lives, thus “making our city passable.”