The Price of Unity?

There seems to be a lot of talk this campaign year about unity, about avoiding the negative, about wisdom, about integrity, about a lot of things. I can honestly say that during all my years of observing and participating in elections, this has been the greatest disparity between expected mudslinging and actual mudslinging. I say that from my own point of view, and even in light of a new and infamous campaign letter that never reached my address, many people would probably agree. While I don’t doubt that there has been plenty of mudslinging verbally and behind closed doors, in fact based on a couple of emails and phone calls recently I can say I know that’s happening, overall, publicly at least, the election climate has been very, very restrained.
I’ve a number of theories for this. One is that over time mudslingers have realized that voters tend to be turned off by the tactic, unless a person finds a way of doing it which is credible and legitimate. Second, some campaigns have gone underground, meaning rallies and meetings not open to the general public (read: all candidates), almost no presence on the worldwide web, and generally relying of word-of-mouth, family coalitions, and pooled support bases. Lastly, the incumbents this year, and I don’t say this because I am one of them, have a less known and visible flaws to point out, like criminal records, repeated public outbursts and unseemly behavior, and no lost ethics suits.
Those are just a handful of my theories, and the point of this posting isn’t to delve into all of them. My point really is that this year more than anything, being publicly respectful and nice to one’s opponents and/or adversaries is clearly “in”. I have no problem with that, except one thing: Repression can be unhealthy.
That phrase is will probably sound a little cryptic, but I chose it very carefully. One of the more recent catchy news stories that bothered me was the case of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. For those of you not familiar with it, he was the former NFL player who left football in order to join the Army and serve his country. He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, but the initial reports were that he had fallen under enemy fire. Tillman was treated like a hero, which in a way he kind of was. But that didn’t change the fact that what his family had been told initially wasn’t true. Certain higher ups in the Army didn’t want a demoralizing story of a high-profile soldier being killed by his own men, so the version given to Tillman’s family was a heroic one. Now I am not going to get into the larger issues of the war in Iraq or on terrorism or President Bush or Republicans/Democrats because those are beside the point. The point really is that the way it was handled was wrong, and hurtful, not only to the family but to the American people.
I can’t say that on Council right now we are dealing with anything of that magnitude. But what I can and will say is that recently we are heading in that direction. We are starting to deal with issues, some of them really alarming. I run into Tribal members often, and almost daily am asked “How are things going?” and not in reference to my life but to my job. The bittersweet smile I give and the breath of hesitation I take are getting more and more noticeable. It’s getting harder to say “Fine” and be believed. My friends and confidants aren’t fooled anymore. They know something is up.
Council has had to deal with a couple of major “incidents” recently, both of which are likely to be known publicly very soon, and both of which, depending on how we deal with them, will appear very, very partisan. And maybe they are. They will definitely be “spinned” that way to some Tribal members. But truthfully, we are dealing with major philosophical differences, and in some cases good old right and wrong.
I guess the question is at what point do you stop letting things slide? At what point do you quit turning a blind eye to certain things because you know that to deal with them could get out of hand and result in tons of wasted staff and Council time? I am not really sure. On the one hand, I like having a cordial relationship with fellow Council members because then we can be productive together a lot of the time. Conversely, allowing one minor abuse seems to beget more minor abuses, and my conscience begins to nag at me.
Tomorrow and in the near future we will be faced with some very unpopular decisions, but ones that need to be made. Some people will probably be very, very angry. But I think that those decisions will be the right ones. I just don’t like to be accused of being divisive by demanding accountability. Unity isn’t turning a blind eye to wrongdoing, but dealing with wrongdoing consistently and fairly.
Problem is, I know not everybody will see it that way.