When I sat down to begin writing my first post on government this week, “Your Elected Officials”, my plan was for it to be the first of several forthcoming articles about government. As it happened, my first working title for the article was actually “Why Government Still Matters”, but when I came to the end, I realized that I wasn’t yet ready to make that point. I believe government can matter. I believe it can accomplish astounding things, in addition to its basic role as a ward against the anarchic alternatives. But I also believe that government is flawed at its most basic level, in large part because it was crafted, and is conducted by, flawed people.  This was the point I ended up choosing to make on Monday which, it turns out, apparently rankled members of my local Atwater Village Neighborhood Council.

I didn’t set out to pick a fight with MY local elected officials. In fact, I’m sure we have much more in common than we have at odds. Heck, given that it has been a year or so since last I attended a meeting, I’m perfectly happy to hear that things on the council have changed dramatically. Also, since the comments on my first article make it clear that they took my observations a bit personally, I should clarify that it was not my intention to impugn the characters or professions of any individual council-members (though I stand by my “dirty cop” irony). Quite simply, I meant only to measure the council by the efficacy of the body of government as a whole. And by that measure, this is a council that doesn’t have a stellar track record. In the end, however, the conclusions that I drew at the meeting I attended are certainly not unique to Atwater village, and I’m sure the current council is well acquainted with the substance of my criticisms. This, I suspect, is exactly what made them choose to get involved in the first place.

With that said, the point I had hoped to make when I began thinking about the role of government in my own life, is that at its core, Democracy has somehow been able to find a common language to express many of the core values and principles of the wildly divergent opinions and beliefs in this country. That is an accomplishment possible only because we have devised a pretty elegant system of government which systemically requires dialogue and compromise.

Given the above, local government makes for a rather interesting prism through which to analyze the failings of this great system. Even at the best of times, when the great political minds bring their attention to bear on a problem, government seems to react slowly, and frequently, their “solutions” fail to fully satisfy anyone completely. At the worst of times, differing opinions and agendas can reduce the proceedings to a complete and total impasse.

So with reference to the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council, it sounds like matters have improved, and for that, I couldn’t be more thrilled. Moreover, since two council members have taken the time to respond to my article, I’ll do my part and take them up on their invitation to attend a meeting.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my popcorn is getting cold and I need to go watch The Shield.