I happen to be looking at one of the comments in Old Doc’s blog. It was a comment by Dwayne Wilkins, Tony Rucker’s campaign manager (putative?) and it got me thinking.
‘…We spend way too much time fighting over little stuff, when we really need to spend time on the big stuff…’
To my mind it is disingenuous when someone says, .‘We spend way too much time fighting over little stuff, when we really need to spend time on the big stuff…’ Every experienced business person that I know knows, it’s the little stuff that counts, it’s the little stuff that can put you out of business, it’s the little stuff can mean the difference between a profit and loss, it’s the little stuff, a blood clot, that can kill you and it’s the little stuff that can mean the difference between a happy customer and a lawsuit. It's the little stuff that is really hard.
A lot of us are old enough to remember the Challenger disaster. It happen, as the Physicist Richard Feynman showed, because management ignored the little stuff. So don’t ever say ‘We spend way too much time fighting over little stuff, when we really need to spend time on the big stuff…’ because the little stuff can come back and bite you in the ass. The Devil is in the details.
‘For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.’
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.’
Let’s not let this be the fate of Plainfield.
7 comments:
Nat, you are missing the point. We spend so much time fighting over the little stuff that we don't spend any time actually dealing with the little stuff. We love the fight so much we can't get beyond it (them).
There are numerous small ways the City Council can extend transparency and accountability:
We could hold a second set of department and division hearings midway between the annual budget hearings so goals, strategies, needs, and results, can be better assessed.
The Council could require monthly grant status reports from the time a grant is applied for so these funds don't fall into the void of city government only to rise to the surface a few weeks before we use it or lose it. That's a familiar ploy that sucks in even the most astute Council members. Instead of demanding more lead time and better planning, the Council often opts for wasting tax dollars on poorly conceived programs with questionable results.
Adding the the list, Council members who are liaisons to various boards and commissions could actually attend those meetings with regularity instead of once in a blue moon. Who in Plainfield doesn't have the impression that we're all kept in the dark, and that the City Council is only one baby step removed from the ignorance of the general public about what's going on?
"We spend way too much time fighting over the little stuff" may be an understatement. Doing the little stuff adds up to big things. Fighting over the little stuff happens when you get slapped in the face when you come out of a self-imposed fog. But that's our leadership for you, more content with fighting over personalities and political affronts dating back years, and sacrificing tomorrow on the altar of yesterday.
Nat, I like your Challenger analogy. Do we blame it on Jerry Green, the Mayor, or the New Dems? Chris Christie perhaps? Hey, it only happened in 1986, so there's still plenty of time to fight over it. Whether we ever actually figure it out is another question. Once we finish with WBLS, Purchasing, Recreation, The Scarlet Letter, and Bibi, we can get started.
Isn't it funny how the very people that are attempting to do what's right on the city council per fiscal accountability are the ones being called the "problem causers".
Isn't it funny how the uneducated masses in France caused a revolution to benefit the people of France, yet in Plainfield, the uneducated masses are the very ones keeping the King Jerry XVI and Sharon Antoinette in power.
FOOLS. All of them.
All the big stuffs is made up of little stuffs . . . details, details, details!
Follow the bouncing ball... Everyone understands the concept of composites. The issue is are the little things important in the overall scheme of things. We are all familiar with the four quadrants of important, urgent, so on and so forth. We don't need to be spending time on not important- not urgent matters when we have a 3.4 million dollar budget gap to close. I know we don't have many things to do in Plainfield but maybe those who would spend their time arguing over nothing need to find a hobby or visit the zoo or something.
Rob you're obvious are a wanna bee elitist. Just because you read the "Tale of two cities" doesn't mean your ideas are any more valid than someone you called the group the uneducated masses. I'm sure you could learn something from that group if you could stand being close enough to breath the same air as them. You sit in this blog and preach to the choir and never even take the time to listen to people that have a different perspective. Stuck on stupid. Stop watching FOX news and get a life.
Ok....yea, um...Anonymous at 3:41...this is simply too easy.
Only read part of War and Peace..found it long and too full of 'fluff'. I prefer history and science fiction for my reading down time.
- One does not "sit in this blog", one reads this blog.
- I have never watched Fox News..local or national. I don't enjoy sensationalism from Rigid Right Wing Republicans or Knee Jerk Left Wing Liberals.
- I am a fiscally conservative and responsible person and believe the government should be responsive to and accountable to the taxpayers. If this idea causes me to be an "elitist" wanna be..then damn, I accept that label. If being with the uneducated masses who find the fiscal games of hide and seek from the Hot Mess of a Mayor Sharon and her half wit Puppet Master Jerry Green is something I need to "experience"...thanks, I'll pass, I don't need to be knee deep in a cow pasture to know it smells like crap.
There is a 3.4 million dollar gap because of fiscal irresponsibility you mental midget. What ?? Do you think the "Magic Money Tree" in Trenton that Jerry Green speaks of was turned off??? No..it never existed.
So let Sharon play games with the money here and there where she pleases and when that impending train wreck finally occurs you I am sure would be the first to stand up and scream " How could the city council let this happen."
Since Jerry, his writer, Sharon and her cheerleading squad all read the blogs I would hope the people that the posts are meant to influence would adopt an ounce of shame or integrity and behave in a way that is responsible to the citizens of Plainfield - NOT THEMSELVES. Believe the garbage you are being fed that the reason Plainfield is in financially dire straights because of some "mean fat Republican" in the governor's office when it was a old dumb local Democrat who openly participated in the drunken sailor spending spree that has brought the city and the state to the point they are at.
Anon @ 3:14 - You do realize that an actual revolution took place in France? Your Dickens reference is pointless and you are missing the historical analogy.
I rarely agree with Rob's overall ideology, but on this one, he is correct. The problem which Rob is referring to is not unique to Plainfield. Plainfield is emblematic of the country as a whole; there is a growing trend of people voting against their own self-interest.
I hope you will weigh in on what happened in the town hall forum the other night when Dee Dameron said that she had been visited at her workplace by Bill reid and Tony Rucker, and Duane Wilkins. Tony Rucker said he didn't know where she worked and was just getting a donut. Does she work in a donut shop? There is no reason for three grown men to go to a woman's workplace while she is working. I guess all three have nothing better to do while she works. Reid is part of Rucker campaign but he is trying to act like he is independent. Jerry's slime is hard to get off.
Post a Comment