I lost my father a few months ago. As I sat with him and watched him gently drift off to wherever it is souls go, it struck me that time is the great leveler of all things human. Each of us has only so much of it and that’s it; you can’t buy more even if you are Bill Gates and have all the money in the world. But it was what my father didn’t say in his last hours that really taught me something valuable. He didn’t wish he had spent more time at the office, talking on a cell phone or worrying if Osama or George W. would blow up the world.
Since then, I have been asking myself: Why are we humans rushing from one place to another all the time, yakking constantly on our phones, trying to fill up every second with some sort of activity? Why are we always worried about something we can’t do anything about? Why do we participate in blogging here, some of us metaphorically tearing each other apart in mortal combat over differences of opinion and political points of view in our tiny pond? Does it really matter that much? Will what we say as individuals here and now on this site have any meaning at all in 10, 50 or 100 years? Does it really matter if our mayor gets booted out of office today or leaves on December 31 via the front door?
When the issue of how we spend our time comes up in conversation, I find that most people say they would rather be doing something else somewhere else. I have said the same thing myself, only now, since my father’s death and my mother’s before him, this is a burning issue that has taken on a life of its own in my mind. It’s something we all confront at one time or another I suppose, but I think most people may just ignore it and keep moving. I haven’t been able to do that. Coming to terms with the time I have left and how best to spend it is rapidly becoming the determining factor in my life, especially as I get older.
During these sweltering days of summer, when it is too hot to do much of anything, and many things, like politics, are at a standstill, park the car, turn off the phone, television and computer and take some time for yourself to put the world into perspective. When I do this, many of the external things, issues and people in the world that concern me get smaller and seem remote and unimportant. I may not like George W. Bush, but he’ll be out of office soon and I won’t have to hear him mumble his coded inanities or care about what he says ever again. Soon, one mayor will be gone and we will have another and city life will continue much as before. Time solves all matters one way or another, even wars and global warming.
“Will what we say as individuals here and now on this site have any meaning at all in 10, 50 or 100 years? Does it really matter if our mayor gets booted out of office today or leaves on December 31 via the front door?”
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If you doubt the long term impact of what we—as San Joseans, Americans, human beings—do or say today, imagine how different our world would be had there been silence and stagnation during a recent decade, for instance, the 1950’s. The dull, bourgeois, white bread America of the 1950’s.
Is it possible that African Americans would have gained their civil rights were it not for the everyday, sometimes seemingly insignificant conversations, confrontations, and compromises made in the 1950’s? I suspect that no single incident did more to facilitate change than did the collective power of millions of white Americans seeing something and deciding, “that’s not right.”
How effective would have been the battle against polio without either the March of Dimes or knowledgeable people sharing prevention and treatment news with their less-informed neighbors? At a time when ten cents was not easily spared and news access was limited, individuals donated a dime when they could and kept each other informed with great generosity.
Could America have emerged as the premier technological power were it not for the public’s steadfast support of the work ethic and a merit-based educational system? How many times a day do you imagine some malleable young American encountered a boss or teacher or parent reinforcing those hard lessons of life?
Would our inventors and entrepreneurs have found a market for their products were it not for the public’s willingness to talk about and try out new technologies? New products came into the home only after housewives started talking about them; the more they talked, the more products were made, the more jobs were created, the more taxes were collected, the more highways were built, the cheaper transportation became, etc.
The Fifties mattered and still do.
Laws change, people thrive, standards survive, and progress occurs because of the many unremarkable things individuals say in supermarkets, town squares, break rooms, political chambers, and even blogs. The rants and raves on this site are not so much about Ron Gonzales or budget issues or hip hop gunmen as they are about the particular values we hold important.
The things that we—most of us, anyway—dislike about our mayor are things that would have riled our grandparents and, hopefully, will not be tolerated by our grandchildren.
What I would like to see in the Ron Gonzales case is justice for him and a lesson for everyone else. These are things that matter. These are things we talk about.
Dear Jack:
I do think what is said here matters. Ideas are more important than things. But in San Jose, it’s the other way around. It’s important that we fight to get our priorities straight again.
There is a profound difference between arguing and complaining. Just because one argues for a set of values doesn’t mean that they are a whinner or a complainer. (I think that from time to time, people who post comments on this site forget that).
Given the wealth and intellectual capital in this valley, San Jose should be one of the best managed and maintained cities in the world. It doesn’t even come close, and we ALL should be wondering aloud, WHY?
The coin of the realm in San Jose is the politics of promotion. Ceremony is placed before substance, and form before function. Take the new city hall structure (Please!). The Sobrato Tower on Almaden was offered to the city for $162 million, but the city rejected the offer because there was no room for a rotunda and the tower wasn’t large enough to hold all of the city’s workers. (the current site is also not large enough to hold all of the workers). So, instead of buying the Sobrato tower and re-wprking the existing city hall site, the mayor and council voted to build a hood ornament at 4th and Santa Clara. (More than one hundred million dollars could have been saved here).
The City of San Jose can’t afford to keep its swimming pools open for neighborhood kids to enjoy, and it has a 300 mile backlog list of roads that need repair. And, every year around budget time, the seniors at the Alma Senior Center wonder if their center will be closed.
Everything’s upside down in this town. What is said here matters, and the actions that follow matter even more.
Pete Campbell
Pete # 2:
I must agree with most of what you say. However: “Given the wealth and intellectual capital in this valley, San Jose should be one of the best managed and maintained cities in the world. It doesn’t even come close, and we ALL should be wondering aloud, WHY? “
Why, Pete? Because (have you forgotten?) relatively few of the people in this VALLEY that you speak of neither live nor work in San Jose. And, I daresay, they rarely visit San Ohaze, either. That’s one reason why calling San Ohaze “The Capital of Silicon Valley” is an even bigger joke than calling our aiport an international ariport.
I should have written “either..or” Sorry.