Like Minded People - On Education

Sitting on a long plane flight home is a good time for reflection. Reflection about all of the people I met at the ACCT Conference in Seattle this week, community college board trustees from around our country. 

I met trustees from community colleges in the Midwest, from the South, the East Coast and even from Somoa. No one asked if I was Democrat or Republican or what I thought about the shutdown or the Affordable Care Act. Conversations centered around our colleges, what we were doing to promote student success and how we were doing with workforce training. It was a joy to be with like minded people who all were passionate about serving students, irregardless of where we came from or what our political stripes may be.

But my mind often drifted to Washington, where the lack of like minded people truely threatens our democracy. The failure to compromise, the failure to accept the majority decisions, the failure to see a bigger picture of why it is important to work within a democratic system and not bring it to a halt when you disagree is both maddening and saddening.

I am greatful to still work in a field of like minded people. But as I fly over Mt. St. Helens on the way home, I can only hope Congress can come to its senses soon before things blow up like this mountain did not so long ago.