William F. Buckley and my own Ideas of Governance

William F. Buckley died yesterday. I once drove him from Johns Hopkins to the BWI airport in my old white mustang after he delivered a commencement address to the year graduating before me.

We chatted for perhaps 30 minutes. It wasn't much fun, but it was a memory.

While the conservative movement hasn't created the sort of evil of communism or totalitarian fascism, I find it to be morally weak. Buckley was also often morally weak in his writings--I would suggest he was often confused. That rang true to me moments into a car ride with him when I was just 20. I maintained my negative opinion later in life. I didn't dislike his ideas, I disliked his arrogance in presenting them as if he had some power of insight lacking in the rest of us. He didn't. He was a bully, and I don't much care for bullies.

Living in a conservative society now I must say I enjoy the comforts of law and order and low taxes. Would I prefer Denmark or Sweden...honestly, yes I would in some ways. There are those in the CI who would invite me to leave at those remarks...similar to those in the US who invite people to leave who disagree with them. Queer idea that--a queer notion of hospitality as I see it. But it could be an honest disagreement.

My mission as a civil servant is to deliver the country government wants...the Queen, the Governor, the legislature, the cabinet, etc. I am also obligated as I have been taught and as I believe to inject my own morality into the gray areas. That doesn't mean that I "legislate from the bench." It means I have the moral fiber to make a decision. Whether others override such decisions is of course a matter of governance. But my mind is mine. No one can force ideas upon me. I hope my boys always remember that. We are not robots, but homo sapiens -- people who reason -- and reasoning is part of our fundamental identity as a species. Like my more religious friends, I believe in free will. Where I differ is in the notion that there is a little black book that tells us whether that free will casts us on this side or that side of good and evil. Unfortunately, reasoning...sapiens...isn't that simple.

My mission as a teacher is to help people cope...coping is my synonym closest to learning. We must learn to cope with a world where there are no simple answers...Buckley was a man of simple answers.

I have added a quote from Gandhi to my signature line at work this week. It goes as follows:

"Honest disagreement is often a sign of real progress. "

Part of living abroad is respect for one's visiting status, but also constant vigilence that rights are universal and predicated on being "human" not on being a citizen. Citizenship to me is an obligation to improve a place...it isn't a birthright. For those who see rights as tied to a document or a government, they will never see what I mean. I am thankful that the founders of my country realized the Bill of Rights did not grant rights but made clear they were reserved from any possible encroachment.

Too often we in government forget that sanctity others have paid so dear a price to secure. The duty of a civil servant in a Westminster system is to remain politically quiet to political taunts, but it is not to be morally quiet in the execution of one's duties. Hard lesson...and one I contemplate most days in this lovely country while I try to serve its wonderful peoples.