After a respite in the mountains of Colorado with my fellow American Leadership Forum classmates, I have returned to the city with a new focus.
My classmates reminded me that everyone cares about the issues we most often discuss on this blog. What is the future of education for Texas? Among my classmates, there were people far more qualified to answer that question than me. Yet, we all agreed that there is no clear answer. Even as we sat among the stunning beauty of the mountains, we contemplated how our educational system will provide the critical learning tools of the 21st century to an ever-increasing body of students without additional funding. The educators among us indicated that they must adapt and do the best they can for the students…. for they have no other choice.
We also pondered other topical issues of the day such as immigration, health care, criminal justice, mental health and more.
We reflected our city in diversity and in partisanship. Yet, we were able to pull together and get every person up a mountaintop. We put our differences aside to face a tough challenge.
During this process, I was reflecting on the great partisan divide. I pondered if Democrats and Republicans today could even climb a mountain together. One group would be pulling to the left and the other to the right? Could they even manage to head in the same direction to achieve a common goal?
Currently, this seems to be the most important question in our democracy. Can we establish a common goal among our leaders and create a path to get there? Would it be possible to simply focus on one problem and look for quality solutions?
It is my greatest wish to take top Legislators from both parties and set them on a path to achieve a common goal. Separate them from the outside influences that seem to be driving the political process and encourage them to make decisions in the best interests of the citizens. By the way, maybe we could also help them to stop worrying about the next primary election and allow them to actually vote their conscious.
What a concept!