A Crack in the Liberty Bell Curve

It's shaping up to be a pretty good week for America, although I am still not too sure about Wisconsin.  The space shuttle is scheduled to return successfully, and the federal government will remain open longer than a 7-11.  But Governor Walker is still trying to impose his will on the public unions, and there's a pretty good chance that the NFL will  be showing reruns of the Vancouver Olympics next fall.

Calmer and, dare I say, saner voices are calling for a return to civil discourse on all fronts - reminiscent of Roosevelt's second fireside chat, which ended, "We are encouraged to believe that a wise and sensible beginning has been made.  In the present spirit of mutual confidence and mutual encouragement we go forward." 

That remains to be seen.  Mutuality is a lost art in contemporary American politics.  Headlines blare that the "new dynamic pits unions vs. taxpayers" as if union members don't pay taxes or aren't loyal to the republic.  Private or public, when the pie shrinks everyone must share the loss.  It shouldn't matter who pays the compensation, but it does matter who is baking - and eating - the pie. 

The American public seems to understand that this budget battle, in the end, is about fairness, that it has always been about fairness.  A majority of those polled say that they oppose efforts to weaken collective bargaining rights because it strikes at the heart of this fairness, our right as Americans to redress our grievances.

It is this belief that gives us the courage as a free nation to face an uncertain future, a future that hinges upon discovering our mutual interests with compassion, wisdom, and a sense of public duty to find a better way.  Res Public.

Public opinion expert Daniel Yankelovich calls how America makes up its mind The Learning Curve.   I call it the liberty curve, because its shape determines our collective freedom and our economic destiny.  Too far to the right and the public is left out of democratic decision-making; too far to the left and public participation may remain uninformed and ill-advised. 

Yankelovich titles his new book, "Toward Wiser Public Judgment."  We have a lot of work to do to improve our country's civic literacy.  In fact, illiteracy as a whole is rampant - and spreading to the Internet.

Speaking of epidemics, the U.S. Department of Education recently reported in a 2006 study (maybe they should have asked Yankelovich to do the survey quicker) that only 36 percent of adults have even the minimal skills to deal with the information provided them for follow-up medical care and medications.  For example, one elderly patient undergoing his first colonoscopy did not know to take the foil wrapper off his prescribed suppository.  Ouch!

A 2007 study estimated the problem costs the U.S. economy as much as $238 billion annually.  That savings alone could pay NFL players for the next 27 years.  As the comic strip character Pogo said sixty years ago about pollution, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."