Local Government is Now Critical As Leaders Face Social Unrest and a Pandemic

During one of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily news conferences,  he said something that stuck with me. “This crisis,” he said, “has shown that Government matters. Expertise matters. Science matters.” Being a former Mayor, when he said, “Government Matters,” he emphasized that the manner in which local governments handle the pandemic now, after so many have become somewhat complacent, is critical.

Add to that the protests and riots that took place throughout the country after the highly visualized death of George Floyd under a police officer’s knee, local leaders are now suddenly high-profile news makers. On video the world saw a cold hearted, unrelenting action by this police officer  who is supposed to be a “peacekeeper” result in a death of a middle age black man, who ironically recently made an Instagram video telling young black men to not arms themselves.   

This incident should remind every public servant, elected and appointed,  that the world is watching. When you are out in public, those around you, all with cell phones in hand,  are the new societal checks and balances.  Not only did the officer show no respect for human life, but also no awareness, empathy, or a modicum of common sense.  What shocked and sickened all who have viewed the video was that the officer continued to apply pressure on Floyd’s neck wickedly as he pleaded for him to stop saying “I can’t breathe.” Protesters say this brings to light the discrimination and racism people of color confront daily within our social order.

The impromptu, crude and unprofessional cell phone videos that were photographed by eyewitnesses to the incident have resulted in igniting a tinderbox of national outrage!

The blanket news coverage of civil unrest has pushed to the back burner the fact that people are dying of a pandemic that might very well get worse due to all protest gatherings going on throughout the country with no safeguards in place. Another news item that has been minimized is that an mRNA coronavirus vaccine candidate has cleared a key hurdle this week and began phase two of clinical trials. This means that a vaccine developed by Moderna Therapeutics has passed its initial safety checks, has met an important milestone and is one step closer to being available to the public.

When local leaders ran for public office to serve their respective communities, no one foresaw that the decisions they would make during their term would determine if someone would  live or die. I’m sure, if many of those who are currently leading local communities through these crises knew in advance what was in store for them during their terms, they most likely would not have run for office.  

My point is that very few municipal residents pay attention to the workings of local governments. Local elections, on an average, draw about 12% of eligible voters. Even though, in many cases, these decisions have a direct impact on the quality of their lives, if there is nothing on the agenda that affects a homeowner’s particular home or street, they simply do not care. To be honest, most local governments decisions deal with boring issues such as which company will be awarded the contract to fix sidewalks or if the hedges for someone on the other side of town are too high.  That is, until now.  Everyone is paying a great deal of attention to what local leaders are saying during this time of chaos due to riots and the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. Government does matter!

Local and state governments are on the defensive. Communities throughout the country are being held accountable for harboring the same attitudes that resulted in the George Floyd tragedy. That one act has uncorked a torrent of pent up frustration and outrage that are on display in large and small communities in every state in the country.

For local communities, these demonstrations could not have occurred at a worse time. Due to the Coronavirus municipalities have shut down businesses, closed schools, encouraged people to work at home, limited access to public places, restricted gathering sizes and even mandated wearing face masks and social distancing 6 ft. from the nearest person. Unemployment rates are the highest since the Great Depression and hundreds of thousands of businesses have filed for bankruptcy.  We are told that these measures are saving lives even as we watch in horror the coronavirus death toll hover north of  100,000.

So, after enduring two to three months locked in our respective domiciles it seems that Memorial Day weekend 2020 became the unofficial start to the beginning our post-pandemic lives. While scientists voiced that social distancing and donning masks were still important deterrents to spreading this deadly virus, thousands protested in cities across the country, beaches, street parties and bars were opened and packed with little to no safety measures in place

This decision to ignore safety measures was not based on hard scientific data, rather, it was fueled by outrage, impatience and fiscal desperation. No, we  have not found a cure for the deadly Coronavirus, but the collective patience of our society, on several fronts, has reached its limit.

Is it too soon to stand down from self-imposed quarantines and societal restrictions? Well, we really don’t know. Instead, it would seem that during these past two weeks many have volunteered to become lab rats in a social experiment that will determine if we value our lives more than we do our lifestyles and our right to demonstrate.  

One of the lessons I learned as a public official is that sometimes you have to make a choice. Do you risk a promising political future and endanger your ability to gather public support by doing the unpopular right thing?  Or do you get swept up in the public tide of making a convenient decision by encouraging the public to choose an easier, more destructive wrong road?  Most of us want to return to the status quo and make Spring/Summer 2020 a bad memory. Local leaders are now finding themselves at this crossroad.

It is clear that original CDC guidelines for re-opening society are being ignored. So now, more than ever, government matters. This is the time for local officials to come to the forefront and make difficult, and most likely unpopular decisions that will save lives. Ironically, it is up to these often-ignored politicians to act as the key frontline players in stopping a possible phase two continuation of a worldwide pandemic.

Our scattered, and in some cases, emotional approaches to re-opening our communities will  probably result in a hodgepodge of local outcomes. Some may be very deadly, others more uneventful.

Monitoring, testing, and contact tracing are now local and regional priorities. We are in a new age where people who are empathetic, decisive, able to make difficult life and death decisions and effectively communicate with their constituents are needed to assume public office. Local politics can no longer be a popularity contest. Those who have specific leadership skills should be recruited to apply for these vital positions.

Coronavirus-19 has NOT gone away and the number of deaths in the US is continuing to escalate daily! There are no approved vaccines or viable treatments (despite President Trump’s dangerous hydroxychloroquine claims).  The only thing that has changed is the mass contagion of people’s outrage and impatient attitudes! The only defense left to us now are our local leaders, who, only a few months ago, were basking in their anonymity, but today are being asked to rise to the occasion and serve as pivotal elements in saving thousands of lives.

Scientists will find a vaccine for the Coronavirus, but a cure to racism has eluded us since the origin of our country. It’s clear that those who feel disenfranchised need to be at the table and be a central part of implementing solutions. Main traits needed to cure the racial inequality virus must consist of empathy, consideration, respect, kindness, tolerance, love and moral leadership. Too bad we haven’t discovered a vaccine that includes all those virtues.