Principles are beliefs requiring actions to guide behavior. Our principles and the principles of elected leaders are key components to life, liberty and leadership.It is important voters elect leaders who share their principles. Elected leaders can’t claim to be fiscally responsible and then waste taxpayer money in Union handouts. Leaders can’t claim to support family values while endorsing people who plead guilty to the DA. When elected leaders claim to believe in the principle of ‘open government’ and then keep things from the public they fail in their actions and beliefs.
After college I began seeking personal and professional growth and embarked on a hodgepodge journey of enlightenment to see if I could build on the principles of honesty, hard work and self-reliance my parents tried to instill in us kids. I wondered if I could be better than what I was for my family, friends, customers and community. My folks and the good people at church, little league, scouting and 4-H had provided a foundation, but I wondered if there were more. Napolean Hill’s book “Think and grow rich” wasn’t cutting it.
The journey required taking stock of my principles and actions. Where was I coming up short and what results had I created? I had to identify and shake-hands with that side of my nature that acted contrary to my principles and prevented success and show it the door out. What I would have preferred to keep in the dark I had to bring to the light of day. The fact-finding process created the opportunity to see things as they were, not how I wanted them to be; in that moment there was the chance to become more.
I was introduced to the principle of mindfulness and the belief of right thought, right concentration and right action. This sounded like the belief of grace talked about in church. I thought of our high school basketball coach Mr. Sullivan who taught us the value of right planning, right preparation and right execution. My dad Hank calls this getting the big picture.
Today I again find myself in transition and seeking growth. I want to be better than I am. I am again asking myself what decisions have I made and what are the results? Am I being mindful?
My city of Encinitas is also in transition. Voters need to see things as they are not as they want them to be. What decisions have we made and what are the results? Failing to build the Hall Park has wasted 10 years, and now we don’t have the money. Residents need to file suits against the city to make sure the park is safe. City Hall hides reports. Pensions for city unions increase while services go down and fees go up. Bureaucrats liquidate our assets to fund their failures and public debt is increased to plug budget shortfalls, all of this in sleepy little Encinitas. Are we being mindful?
Our leaders can be better than what they’ve been. We can elect fiscally responsible leaders who will build the park rather than make phony campaign promises while giving away our money to public unions. We need to elect leaders who will endorse our family values of right and wrong instead of endorsing people who plead guilty to the DA.
We must elect leaders who will represent the interests of taxpayers over campaign cronies and insiders.
We would all benefit from more mindfulness at city hall.
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Our elected Council Majority is mindful of what they can get from the taxpayers. Instead of trying to find out what Encinitas residents really want and making decisions that are best for the community, their job is to identify what their donors are looking to get, package it so that it sounds like what residents want it, and then they deliver the goods to their special interests– who in turn toss them some scraps.
The Dan Dalager story was a perfect example of how little it takes to bribe some politicians. Who among us would vote to give away public land for new, (or almost new) dang-near free, kitchen appliances? Remember that after that proud, public omission, Stocks and Bond made robo-calls in support of Dalager while blaming citizen activists, and Gaspar had her image appear with his on slate mailers. In the background, Muir may have been campaigning during work hours–at least if he was behaving the same way as when he worked for Jerome and Jim in their last campaigns.
Our City Attorney sits silently during meetings smiling like a garden gnome, and takes positions on issues like depriving citizens their right to public records–at huge cost to taxpayers, when he is found wrong. It is time for a house cleaning.
What kind of City has Encinitas become?
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