Sunday, June 1, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Remember all those stories about what do we do when we reach the crossroads of our future? Well, we are at that point and it is decision time.
Do we turn left toward a life that is less robust, less enjoyable, less productive and less rewarding than all the pasts that we and those who came before us enjoyed? Or do we turn the other way and set in motion a future that is brighter, more exciting, more financially successful and more personally satisfying for our children and theirs than we could ever have imagined?
Those are the choices and they are pretty simple.
So why is it so hard for our elected leaders and those we expect to show us the way — while most of us are working our tails off trying to grab a small piece of the American dream — to step up and out, beyond the safety net of ideological nonsense and poll-driven cowardice, and lead us toward that better life?
I must admit, as big an optimist as I have always been, I am finding this question increasingly difficult to answer.
It is too easy to say that we, the people, allowed ourselves to be hornswoggled by slick public relations and an untruthful gubernatorial campaign and that is why we elected a man who is determined to use whatever limited ability he has to almost single-handedly destroy what generations of Nevadans have built.
It’s also too easy to suggest that our self-centered, tax-the-other-guy-not-me mentality is the driving force behind our continuing failure to fund the bare necessities of education, infrastructure and health-related services that are an embarrassment from those on the outside and an outrageous failure of government for those who live within the state.
No, the answer is a bit more complicated. But what remains simple is the certain results of our continued failure to take our future into our own hands and demand of those who represent us, and who have taken an oath to help us form a better union and a better state, that they perform or get out.
At a time when our governor is toying with the idea of cutting budgets another 14 percent — which will kill any chance we have of growing Nevada into a state where well-educated, creative, entrepreneurial and successful people will want to join first-generation Americans in pursuing their own dreams of success for themselves and their families — there is barely a voice heard in protest.
A notable exception, of course, is Chancellor Jim Rogers, who has reached a point in his life at which he doesn’t care about what people think, just about how well they can live. How refreshing.
Jim, like the television anchor in the movie “Network,” is mad as hell and it doesn’t appear he is willing to take it anymore — not that he ever was. He is not afraid to tell the governor and anyone else who should listen that this harebrained, ideological no-taxes mantra is killing this state and with it the hopes and dreams of most Nevadans. I say most because there are some nuts out there who would be happy if public schools, public roads, bridges and hospitals — public services of all kinds to the needy and the ailing and public responsibilities such as police and fire — would just go away. Those nuts, by the way, are running Nevada.
One sign of hope is the effort by some in the gaming industry to join with the teachers union and others who actually give a damn about what happens here to find a starting point for a coalition that can help bring back fiscal sanity. It is telling that there are some players along the Strip who would rather fight with one another than forge ahead into a brighter future in which working men and women join hands with Nevada’s dominant industry to create a revenue plan in which all who can afford it are required to invest in this state.
The overt greed of the business types who take, take, take while leaving it for others to pay the price, and the ideologically driven greed of some in the hotel industry who give aid and comfort to the enemies of decent Nevadans, should no longer rule the day. Or rule the governor.
At last count, there were far more Nevadans who care about their children’s education, their road and water infrastructure and the quality of their lives than there are those who think parasites represent the highest and best use of the human condition.
All we need is some leadership and a willingness to just say, “no more.”
Jim Rogers stood up to be counted.
Are the rest of you content to let him stand alone?
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
