Hope for a miracle, work on the choices
On gridlock in Washington, Wayne Gretzky, and thoughts on a terrible diagnosis for one of America's deeply thoughtful leaders
Ben Sasse, the author, former university president, and past senator from Nebraska, has shared the devastating news of a terminal cancer diagnosis at just 53 years old.
■ Every community and every society, no matter how big or small, needs people who take action -- those who see a problem and choose to do something to solve it. And that is first and foremost what Sasse has done in his time as a public figure.
■ But it’s not sufficient just to take action to solve a problem -- one must also be clear about solving the right problem. That’s where his behavior has been a model for others. Demonstrating unusual curiosity for a national-level political figure, Sasse has been concerned with outcomes that are influenced far before politics are involved.
■ He left a gridlocked Senate chamber to invest his time and effort in influencing the nature of how young people are educated and formed. In a sense, he was following Wayne Gretzky’s advice to skate where the puck is going to be. The Senate is the product of the people, so a chronic problem under the Capitol has causes demanding attention upstream.
■ That focus on trying to solve the right problem, rather than simply taking action for its own sake, deserves applause. People can have reasonable disagreements about what form action should take, but it’s important to coalesce around identifying true root causes.
■ Things can be changed for the better, but people of goodwill have to come together first by identifying real problems. Honest disagreements over solutions can follow, but little gets done if people don’t share common perspective on what the problems are. Ben Sasse deserves more time to work on those problems -- and we can hope for a miracle that grants him a reprieve. But the behavior he has modeled is worthy of emulation, which isn’t a miracle, but rather a choice.
