Shades of Grey

The debate on the confirmation of Betsy Devos and the subsequent 50/50 vote, split, all but two, along party lines, had me wondering about the process of decision making in government.

My personal experience is that in very very few of the decisions one needs to make, is one certain that one has made the correct choice.  The choices may be starkly different, but the factors influencing the decision are usually complex, imprecisely defined, and dependent on the vagaries of an uncertain future.

Clearly, decisions do have to be made, from the trivial to monumental.  I am thankful that in my life I have only been called upon to make ones that impact the lives of a limited number of people.  The thought of having to make a decision that has the potential to positively or negatively affect the lives of our schoolchildren for a generation is frightening.

What I do know is that if I were called upon to make that decision, I would attempt to take into account all of the information available to me at that time, together with my best estimate of the future impact of my decision.  After a considerable amount of soul searching I would make the choice that seemed in the best interests of those affected by my decision.  However I most definitely  wouldn’t be certain that I had made the correct choice.

Presented with a complicated choice, it wouldn’t be surprising if a group of 100 people ended up split 50/50 on their choice.  What suggests that we have the wrong people making the decisions is that before any discussion had taken place, you could predict the result of 98 of these people by looking at the (D) or (R) after their name.

Does party affiliation make you certain that your decision is correct?  If it does then I suggest you shouldn’t be making the decision.  If it doesn’t, then let’s see some evidence of decision making based on your very best attempt to balance the factors in a complex situation in the hope of benefitting all those affected by the decision.

Today we needed to abandon skiing and unexpectedly catch the bus back to the condo.

Somehow we successfully survived the traumatic walk/carry from the lift to the bus stop with our screaming three year old, only to find that we had only one of the two bus tickets that we needed.

The bus driver said that we could pay for the second ticket with a bill (note) but of course the machine would not give any change.  I only had $20 bills with me, and using one of them for the $2.50 fare wasn’t attractive.

I asked the other people waiting for the bus if any of them could change a twenty, but not surprisingly, everyone either had a bus pass, or no change, or also only had twenties.  One young lady asked if the machine took coins.  I confirmed that it did, she asked how much the fare was and proceeded to give me the $2.50 from her purse.

She was a Ukrainian, who had visited London while working on the Marco Polo cruise line, and was now working at the Four Seasons Hotel here.  Her generosity was wonderful and so refreshing at a time when there is so much animosity between people.  I don’t know how well they pay her at the hotel, but I am pretty sure that the $2.50 represented more to her than it would to me.

I gave her my email address in the hope that she will email me so that I can do something concrete to express the gratitude we feel, not just for the money, but for an act of kindness and generosity from one human being to another.

While the last few days have been some of the most depressing for me, there is one aspect of the situation that offers some comfort.  Finally I have something that isn’t nuanced in shades of grey, it is simply black and white.  Or to be more accurate brown and white.

The Trump ban on Muslims and refugees is WRONG.

There’s little point in going over the reasons why it is wrong both in its essence, and in the possibility of achieving its declared objectives.  If you are reading this you either know the truth of that statement or if you do not, have either not read the facts of the ban or have a mindset that doesn’t respond to those facts.

Of course the comfort of certainty only goes so far.  The depression comes not so much from the actions of President Trump as from the inaction of so many others.  Where is the outrage from ALL of those elected to defend the United States?  Where is the condemnation of an action that goes against the basic tenets of the country?  Have we fallen so far that we have elected so many politicians who seem to act in their own interests rather than in the interests of the people who elected them and the country they supposedly hold so dear.  If the argument is that their silence reflects the views of the majority then we are seeing the demise of the America that has been a beacon to the world.  I still hope that this is not the case, and although I am happy to have black and white views on the ban, I will continue to strive for a shaded view of the wider world.

February 2nd 2017

Over the years, and particularly since the start of the 2016 election cycle, I have been struggling with creating a view of the world that is at the same time true to my beliefs and understanding of the disparate beliefs of others.  My hope is that in this blog I can express some of the thoughts that have occurred to me as I endeavor to create such a view, and that those thoughts will be of interest to others.