Representation

Have you ever been at a party, and got trapped by someone who thinks they are smarter than you? Admittedly, I have encountered people who are smarter than me, but usually I end up not talking to, but listening to someone who wants to tell me about their career in the Metropolitan Opera. Suddenly, I need to go to the bar. I actually ran into a fellow printer, and thought this might be a conversation. But no, he wanted to teach me the history of printing, which sadly started with Gutenberg. Around about the turn of the century, I informed him that I was, in fact, a printer. He said, “Ah, so you know,” and then picked up where he left off. I needed to go back to the bar around about the end of the 20th century.

The point of this story is that sometimes people talk, but they have no interest in listening. Sure, I get that. If you ask me the story of my life, I will be up to age 18 and you will be in your pajamas, brushing your teeth, and deep asleep as I continue.

I flag some people as being ‘all output/no input’. This is intensely rewarding to the output person, but not so much for the person who might want to throw in an anecdote of his/her own.

The thing is, most people don’t need to listen. I have a friend who always asks, “How are you?” I always say “Fine.” That’s because, if I say, “I fell and fractured my shoulder (which I did)” I will get stories of every injury my friend has ever had, dating back to his childhood. This is intended to be helpful, but is not. All output, no input.

This is what we do. We wait for a pause in someone else’s story, so we can tell our own. This is human nature. The problem comes when my story takes a minute, and your story takes 20 minutes.

A wise man told me to listen more than I talk. I’m human, so I occasionally break this rule. [Do not make me drink wine, or you will be putting on your pajamas and bringing out your toothbrush.]

LISTENING
Though I can be a helluva talker, my training as a writer leads me to listen more than I talk. Most of the people I interview are thrilled to talk about themselves, and what they do. My thrill comes from recording that, and telling their story.

Listening, to me, is the essence of proper conversation. Not dissertation on the Metro Opera or the ungodly long history of printing. Conversation involves two people. If not, it’s just a lecture.

NOW TO THE POINT
If one side controls the conversation, as noted above, it is not a conversation. It is an edict. It is ‘an official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority.’ [Thanks to Wikipedia.] This was traditionally used by authoritarian governments of Europe, and really, really used by the Holy Roman Empire during the Inquisitions.

Edicts tend to spin out of control, as history shows. And this brings us to:

REPRESENTATION
This is a big deal. “Taxation without representation” is a phrase that started a war, and created the United States. Basically it defined how much a people could take, when their supposed monarchial leaders wouldn’t listen.

I could go into detail, but it would be the pyjamas and toothbrush thing.

Something has changed. Something really important has changed. Do the people we elect truly represent us? I suspect, when we vote, we choose someone we think is smart and trustworthy. On the federal and provincial levels, I think we chose well. Because they seem to represent us, and know our County problems.

Council, as well, does their best, but do they represent us? I’m not sure. I hear a lot of “Don’t do this,” from the people—ignored. I see some, “If you’ve got the money, honey, here’s your permit.”

I’m worried. I’m worried that Council sees a different world—a different future—than we do.

Like any government agency, their mandate should be to represent and serve the people. Seems to me they have their own plans.

It reminds me of the Mulroney years; “Trust me, everything will work out fine.” Didn’t. Lost jobs, businesses closing, exported manufacturing.

Things have changed over the years. We used to vote for “who will represent me?” Now it seems we choose the people who appear to be smart. Hopefully smarter than us. And then we cut them loose. Hoping they’ll do the job.

With Council, we get a hodge-podge of people with various backgrounds and interests, and some of them actually support the people they were elected to serve.

But others have a different agenda. Like Mulroney, they believe their mandate is to use their amazing brains and foresight to act on our behalf. This, as we know, does not always work.

We didn’t hire a Council of CEOs to run the company that is the County, and send their edicts to the masses. We didn’t ask for consultants to choose our future direction.

We don’t need people to lead us. We need people to listen to us. That is representation. And that is missing. Sadly, money talks, and money gets a lot of attention. Most of us don’t care if the County is right, and they get rich. Most of us are looking out for us, while the Big Game goes on.

Does County help us? Certainly. They even have budgets set aside to support the groups and organizations that genuinely run the County and its people, and make good things happen.

On Council’s side, it and its backup staff seem to have become a bloated monarchy. Difficult for us to interface with, as we no longer know who to call to get help we need.

Their outreach is good—I get regular emails to inform me that a road I never travel on is closed, and that bad weather is coming, which I already heard on CountyFM. Their input? Not so good.

All output, no input does not a conversation make. There are a lot of really smart people in the County. I’ve read letters in the Times that make me feel I should be wearing a dunce cap and sitting in a corner. Those voices were not heard.

ONE LAST ANECDOTE
I knew the late MP Jack Ellis. Can’t call him a friend, but he helped me out when I asked him for help. I later did a story on his amazing house in Wellington, and got to know him better. He was a devout Christian and, when a bill was on the floor to ban abortions, he sent out an appeal to his constituents to check in on the controversial bill.

A high percentage of County people said no to the bill, and he backed us. Even though it was against his own beliefs, he voted against the bill. That is integrity. That is representation.

That is the strength to count on the word of the people to be part of our own future.

countymag@bellnet.ca