Balance Does Not Show Up on a Ballot

To be cliché about it, these are difficult times.  These days you have to wade through strong polarized views on how things should be.  We have to tolerate polarized elected leadership and sometimes tolerate regular polarized people.  These things do have an effect on our mental health and relationships.  A recent study found that 1 in 5 people are sleepless or have lost a friend over our political climate.  This is not good.

With the election over (not to mention the ads) the voting pressure is starting to fade, I want to encourage us to move towards balance.  No matter what your political persuasion is, open yourself up to find the merit in each position and find the balance in between them.  When we ponder the right answers for the American public, you can find them in the most balanced proposals and not the most one sided.

Let's take the Illinois budget trouble as an example.  We have a budget deficit of around $4.5 billion and the solution is hung up in a war between sides.  One side says we have to raise more revenue to fix the budget.  The other side says our reckless spending is the problem.  Guess what?  Both sides are right.  Together they have the total solution and apart they have nothing.  Just words.  If Illinois wants to do better, we have to have balance.  We have to increase revenue AND decrease spending.  We can't expect candidates to fix problems and find balance simply because they survived an election.

I get it.  Balance does not show up on a ballot.  If we want our desired candidate to be in office, we have to pick a side and vote for them.  If they don't campaign on the general issues of their party, we don't know what we are electing.  We vote for political ideologies, but not necessarily for the person that represents those views.  We often dismiss the "who" in favor of the "what" when it comes to the ballot.  The Pew Research Center offers some evidence for this.  Ahead of this most recent election, 78% of voters polled said they would vote a straight ticket when it came to the President and their House member.  In other words, they will cast a vote for each candidate on the ballot running from a single party.  Only 4% of potential Biden voters said they would vote for a Republican House candidate. 

If we want to find balance in our cultural and political landscapes, we have to change the way we vote.  I am a registered Democrat, but I have only voted a straight ticket a couple of times in my 26 year voting career.  Sure the Democratic political platform holds a certain weight with me, but there have been times that I knew the Republican candidate was a better fit when it came to bringing balance to an office and its unique struggles.  If voting is our civic duty, then we must also show responsibility for bringing the most good to the most people by voting for balance.  We need to worry about the people being the winners of an election and not the candidates.  Then maybe, just maybe we can all have balance.

Good Tired

John Lewis used to say that you have to get into "good trouble" if you are trying to make a difference.  He often used this phrase when talking about being arrested during the civil rights movement.  I have used a parallel phrase lately that in no way compares to the gravity of the civil rights movement, but heroes like him have inspired me to be relentless given the current pandemic condition of schools.  

I often say you have to be a "good tired" when it comes to these difficult times for our school families.  Work too hard and care too much.  This is how you can be a good tired.  Like a carpenter that ends the day scanning his work with pride and wondering how to make it better, we have to embrace working hard for our kids and teachers.  I know many that have written this school year off as a bust and in a lot of ways, I can't disagree.  We have run into our share of roadblocks.  But instead of being beat down about what you can't do, be beat down by how much you are doing.  I don't mean work yourself to death. We have to take care of ourselves, but work that you feel good about like a great visit to the gym.

My school has went in and out of remote learning more than once this year.  It is hard on everyone, but is necessary due to the conditions we are in.  Yes this is frustrating and yes it can be depressing.  Like it or not, your school family is looking to you as a leader to minimize the negative impact that the pandemic has had.  We do not have the luxury of sitting back and throwing our hands up.

If I could speak to other admins that might be lost or struggling, I would say don't stop even if in-person learning does.  We have to be models of persistence and resiliency with our students.  Probably most importantly, we have to remind our community that we are still the guiding institution that they need us to be.  We have lots of annual events that we may have to do virtually, but we won't skip them.  When we do, it feels less like school and more like a pandemic.

I won't lie.  I do feel like I am working way to hard.  I'm often wiped out when I get home and I didn't even do a 15 hour day with a ballgame in it.  I'm tired, but I am satisfied with my effort for kids teachers and families.  That's a good tired.  There is a lot of good tired going around.  I love scrolling through Twitter to see all the ways leaders are keeping everyone connected when it is so difficult to do so.  Finding ways to help kids know that their school cares about them is a lot of work so thank you for doing it.  Leaders and teachers, be proud to be a good tired.