Letters to the Editor for Dec. 20, 2010

He spoke of the country’s growing inequality of wealth, the hardships now befalling our middle class, the exporting of jobs, the impact of business lobbies on Congress, how the estate tax affects only the very wealthy, and much, much more.

I’ve been hoping that there might be an informed debate about what’s going on in our country. It seems to me that a lot of misinformation and negative emotion is clouding our understanding and our ability to help define our path forward. To me, Senator Sanders’ speech was both informative and inspiring. I urge my fellow readers to watch it. A video of the entire speech is available online at http://www.c-span.org/Events/Sen-Sanders-Held-a-Tax-Cut-Filibuster/20338/ . (Because he repeats himself, each of the segments contains much of the content.)

My personal experience with high-performance organizations in the business world has taught me a clear lesson: we get our best results when we reach for solutions that meet everyone’s needs. This is certainly different from power politics. And it is far different from compromise and from stereotypical committee decisions. It makes us apply our great creativity (and patience) to a problem. The results can be much better than our individual, pre-conceived ideas. 

I believe Sen. Sanders made a wonderful start on that process. Like a miracle, to me. There aren’t simple solutions to the issues he raised. But he is challenging us to get together right now, figure things out, and then stand up and speak up. If a 69-year-old Senator can stand and speak for eight hours, the rest of us can stand up, too.