This may seem unbelievable, but it really happened last Wednesday on a flight from San Diego to Raleigh with a stopover in Las Vegas.
A mother had gotten on the plane in San Diego with three young boys ages five, three, and eight months old. Several of the passengers were helping with the children on the first leg of the flight, and on the stopover in Las Vegas, the mother asked if she could get off with the boys to get something to eat. The flight attendant allowed this even, even though no one else was accommodated in this way. The baby was asleep, so the mother asked the lady across the aisle to keep him, and she agreed.
The flight crew changed, the doors of the plane closed, and the plane was about to take off when the lady with the baby stood up and yelled, “The mother is not here!” What ensued after that was commotion and chaos with security coming on board, identification being checked, and a frantic search to find the mother, as the woman with the baby did not even know her name. Their luggage and backpacks were removed, and everyone else was delayed. The stranger with the baby offered to stay behind with the baby if they could put her on a later flight.
Finally, the mother and the other two boys were located. She casually walked onto the airplane, and in an unconcerned and nonchalant way said she didn’t know she was late. The captain said he had never had such a thing happen before. The crew allowed the mother and children to continue on their trip, and the stranger returned the baby. For the remainder of the flight, the mother prayed with her rosary.
Your first reaction may be exactly like mine! What was that mother thinking? But, unfortunately, this kind of behavior is not hard to find.
When faced with responsibilities or difficult circumstances, many leave one of those responsibilities unattended or hand the problem over to someone else, assuming that they will follow through.
When faced with a little unpleasantness or discomfort, many leave responsibilities behind as they seek comfort or self-indulgence.
When faced with multiple dilemmas that require an equal amount of attention or care, many pick and choose which ones they will deal with, leaving many important issues unresolved.
Unfortunately, our local governments mimic this irresponsible mother.
Our city is faced with responsibilities and difficult circumstances. We cannot depend on Washington or Raleigh to fix our sewers, reduce our crime, educate our people, or take care of our blight. For too long we have not done our part in managing our resources, and now our problems are overwhelming. We cannot walk away from them or camouflage them anymore.
We might show off our big buildings and point to them as a sign of progress, but the real problems remain. Getting to work to correct them is going to mean that we face a lot of unpleasantness. Even so, we cannot walk away and ignore them and assume that someone will follow through.
One of the problems is the issue of joint funding. We need to face all the issues of joint funding and treat them all the same. If it is is true that the city taxpayer is being double taxed, then corrective action should be taken for all joint-funding items. We should not pick and choose — we should stop funding them all.
There have been untold hours spent on deciding what to do get our community on a path to progress. Many argue that economic development will cure our ills. Others argue that improving our schools will fix the problem. Some others are sure that hiring lobbyists to bring in money or hiring a grant writer will make it all better. Then there are those who believe that we must clean up and clear out our blight and enforce our codes, and that will solve our problems.
The truth is that addressing just one of these cures won’t make everything better. Economic development, grant-seeking, the elimination of blight, and the improving of the schools all require our attention and care. We cannot take on some and leave others behind if we expect Henderson to take off.
For every problem we face, there are already people in place to fix them. What we need is collaboration and effort. What we need are real leaders who will fight to get a realistic agenda for change and correction in place.
If the local governments will not take off, maybe a citizens group should be put in the pilot’s seat. The flight plan we are on is getting us nowhere — not even a leisurely lunch in Las Vegas.