I have to say as I watch some of the events playing out across the country I am dismayed and disappointed by what I see as an absence of meaningful leadership being played out on stages across the country.

Case in point is Wisconsin. I recognize that all lot of people may see the Governor’s stand on “removing certain collective bargaining rights” as historic and impactful, I see it as neither.

I want to be clear that I am not and never have been a member of a collective bargaining group (aka a union). In fact I have spent the majority of my career trying to create environments where employees did not find it necessary to seek the protection of any third party to represent them in their dealings with their employer. In that group I include not only unions, but government agencies, and attorneys. I have always sought to create relationships where employees didn’t feel they had to “go outside” to get help. If they did as a former HR executive I kind of felt like I failed them.

The other thing perhaps I don’t understand is how the Governor and the legislature feel they can take away rights that are provided by Federal law. Federal law is very clear about the rights of workers to organize and collectively bargain about certain things including, but not limited to “wages, hours, and working conditions”. It also makes it illegal to require an employee to an employee to sign an agreement or contract giving up or committing not to participate in the collective bargaining process- I must have missed something.

We have significant budgetary issues facing many of our state, county, and local governments many of which are hugely impacted by collective bargaining agreements covering health and retirement plans that are no longer fiscally feasible. It is an issue that must be solved. I find it somewhat hypocritical that many legislators and indeed Federal legislators have access and benefit from very generous plans covering both these areas they feel they have an absolute entitlement to for themselves.

This is a societal issue and we need systemic, societal solutions to address them. Suspending someone’s right to discuss or bargain with you over them doesn’t seem productive to me.

On another front in my own home state we have a legislature that is absolutely fixated on the illegal immigration issue almost to the exclusion of everything else. They have multiple lawsuits going with the Federal government about passed or impending legislation that the Attorney General feels is illegal and discriminatory. The latest proposals include removing citizenship from children born in the U.S. to non citizens and making everyone from hospital to public schools responsible for verifying the immigration status of people they serve.

On the flip side we love guns and the right of everybody to have one, carry it, and apparently sell it. It has been suggested that we may be one of the most if not the most significant source of weapons flowing into Mexico to arm the cartels, but the same people who target immigration are almost pathological in their defense of very liberal gun ownership “carry”, and sales laws.

In fact the legislator who sponsors the most draconian of the immigration laws tried to pass legislation preventing jurisdictions who collected weapons from criminals from being destroyed (over the objection of law enforcement officials who supported destruction) because he feels reselling them represents a revenue source. Maybe we should cut out the middle man and simply invite the cartels to a “swap meet” on the border and exchange “products”.

I find “simple” solutions to complex problems not only tedious, but alarming. We have some real issues to deal with relative to health care, unemployment, drug related violence in our border communities and other areas; but to me “arming” the public, hounding illegal aliens, and just suggesting poor people should “get” health insurance seems a little simplistic.

“We” created a lot of these issues over generations. “We” created a sense of “codependency” in much of our population to health care and retirement benefits coupled with an entitlement mentality that is coming back to bite us.

“We” created an artificial economy fueled by consumer spending and speculation and led by slick marketing campaigns that eventually crashed and has left a lot of people in a pretty dire situation.

“We” off shored, outsourced, and downsized rather than built new collaborative models and relationships between individuals and organizations to address a “world economy” and international competition.

“We” lose billions to turnover, health care expenditures related to lifestyle, stress  and emotional health  from economic insecurity and poor management practices in many organizations annually, but our legislative solutions do little to address it nor do I see the stakeholders sitting together to address root causes rather than simply shifting costs and blame.

Personally I would like to see us return to two of the founding principles this country was created on which seem to have become misplaced in the shadow of “personal property”. I refer to personal responsibility and personal competency. I also miss that spirit of collaboration implied in “these United States…”

It is said that when Cicero spoke people said “what a fine speech”, but when Demosthenes spoke people said “let us march”.

I don’t know about you, but I think it is time for us to march- together, and to look for meaningful solutions that don’t simply point fingers and shift blame.

So I guess I have begun my march and accepted that the “someone” who needs to do something might just be me with the benefit of collaboration and participation of others and maybe one person, one family, one community at a time “we” can build solutions that work for all of us….

Maybe that is leadership or maybe it is just personal responsibility, but I am growing tired of waiting for “that other guy” to fix things….