Seidemann: Leading without direction

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of February 5, 2010/ 21 Shvat 5770

What’s worse than being lost in the Poconos with four family members — all sick, tired and hungry? Did I mention that we were almost out of gas with no gas station in sight? Did I mention that we had been in the car for almost four hours on what was supposed to be a two-hour trip?

Twice I transcended and conquered my male ego and stopped to ask for directions. Twice the directions were contradictory and neither of them matched the route set forth on our GPS, a GPS which I would like to sue. What is worse than the above I ask? If you have an answer I would like to hear it, because for those five hours in total that we were lost running on empty without a soul in sight, nothing worse seemed possible.

My mistake was relying on my GPS. I should have called the hotel or better yet, someone else who had been there previously and had navigated the winding roads of the Poconos. We did encounter one farmer who told us that if we couldn’t find our destination within an hour we should come back to him and he would redirect us. Thanks buddy, but if I was still driving an hour later I think I would’ve passed out from anxiety.

Furthermore, the chances of finding that one farmer and his house an hour later were not that great. In any event, I figured that I only had about 10 more minutes of driving as the fuel in my minivan dwindled.

Hope sprung eternal as off in the distance I spotted a gas station. My prayers had been answered, or so I thought. As I pulled up, I noticed a handwritten sign on the pump that read, “No gas till Monday.” The possibility of spending the night in the minivan was becoming all to real. For no particular reason we continued to drive in the direction that our van was facing, and possibly because there were no other roads that we had not already traveled on, we happened upon our intended destination.

My heart sank as I heard the other men in the check-in line brag to each other how they made it to the hotel in record time of under two hours. I sold my GPS later that evening, vowing to always go to the “source” when I wanted information.

A public servants also must go to the source. But for the public servant the source is not the codified law. Rather, the source is the people whom he or she represents. When the will of the people is ignored by the public servant, one begins to wonder whether the elected official is placing too much emphasis on the word “public” and not enough emphasis on the word “servant.” When the leader acts in definance of the source, the people, then as the saying goes, “Houston we have a problem.” To act defiantly and insist on policies that the populace has rejected is to ignore the “source.” To point fingers at everyone else for creating the reality bus that you are charged with driving, is an act of cowardice. At a certain point in time on the road, four hours into a trip that should only have taken two hours, one needs to own up to the fact that maybe he or she is lost and that a phone call to the source needs to be made. Redirection is in order and an acknowledgment that no one else is to blame, not even a GPS, must sink in.

Before the public servant can engage in transforming ideas and policy into law, he must consult the source, he must consult the people, and he must listen to the will of the people.

Failing to listen to the will of the people indeed is worse than driving in the Poconos, lost as lost can be, with an empty fuel tank, and a GPS that has its own idea of where it wants to go.