Thank you for your reporting, Tom, and for so thoughtfully expressing your anger and frustration and channeling it so productively. Sadly, your critique rings very true. It's simply not enough for Evanston's leaders to espouse progressive ideals and launch progressive programs. If those programs are not implemented in a careful, sustaina…
Thank you for your reporting, Tom, and for so thoughtfully expressing your anger and frustration and channeling it so productively. Sadly, your critique rings very true. It's simply not enough for Evanston's leaders to espouse progressive ideals and launch progressive programs. If those programs are not implemented in a careful, sustainable way, then the result becomes self-defeating. Worst of all, the most vulnerable in our community -- often the ones these programs are claiming to try to help -- are the ones who will be hurt the most when they fail.
In my view, there are far too many signs that local leaders are using talking points to bolster their own ambitions or sense of self instead of seeing things through. When their inattentiveness and cronyism leads to predictably messy consequences, these leaders then distance themselves for fear of public criticism and political fallout. Which might partly explain the absence of Biss as any kind of reliable on-the-ground presence in the Bessie Rhodes travesty -- he can co-sign a letter, but it seems he doesn't want to actually get near the situation for fear of damage to his public standing. (Disclosure: I have had personal disappointment with his sporadic engagement on another community issue.)
When talk isn't enough, because IT IS NOT ENOUGH . . .
When government transparency is all too limited . . .
When community feedback is more often used to bolster an agenda rather than to build on it or re-work it . . .
And when progressive programs and initiatives falter due to lack of sustainable implementation . . .
...then those who oppose these measures and ideals, locally and nationally, will try to claim that they don't and cannot work. They can work, and they must. It's not the intention at fault here, it's the implementation.
It is time for a genuine reconsideration and reckoning to ensure that our government is actually working for the people who need it most, not just the people who are running it.
Thank you for your reporting, Tom, and for so thoughtfully expressing your anger and frustration and channeling it so productively. Sadly, your critique rings very true. It's simply not enough for Evanston's leaders to espouse progressive ideals and launch progressive programs. If those programs are not implemented in a careful, sustainable way, then the result becomes self-defeating. Worst of all, the most vulnerable in our community -- often the ones these programs are claiming to try to help -- are the ones who will be hurt the most when they fail.
In my view, there are far too many signs that local leaders are using talking points to bolster their own ambitions or sense of self instead of seeing things through. When their inattentiveness and cronyism leads to predictably messy consequences, these leaders then distance themselves for fear of public criticism and political fallout. Which might partly explain the absence of Biss as any kind of reliable on-the-ground presence in the Bessie Rhodes travesty -- he can co-sign a letter, but it seems he doesn't want to actually get near the situation for fear of damage to his public standing. (Disclosure: I have had personal disappointment with his sporadic engagement on another community issue.)
When talk isn't enough, because IT IS NOT ENOUGH . . .
When government transparency is all too limited . . .
When community feedback is more often used to bolster an agenda rather than to build on it or re-work it . . .
And when progressive programs and initiatives falter due to lack of sustainable implementation . . .
...then those who oppose these measures and ideals, locally and nationally, will try to claim that they don't and cannot work. They can work, and they must. It's not the intention at fault here, it's the implementation.
It is time for a genuine reconsideration and reckoning to ensure that our government is actually working for the people who need it most, not just the people who are running it.