I read an interview yesterday, of a Whitewater political candidate, touting his years of experience. He declared that, among those who were aware of his work, most “would likely say that I almost never miss a meeting and I come well prepared, often having gone above and beyond in researching a matter.”
It’s important to attend meetings, and it’s important to be prepared, but I’d suggest that in politics there is no above and beyond. There is only the work an issue requires, the diligence that it deserves. Whatever that amount may be, it is that amount that the task requires.
Beyond that, there is merely the distasteful alternative of too little effort.
For people in their private lives, especially for young people, there are – of course – often moments of going above and beyond.
Policymaking, however, includes among one’s constituents the disadvantaged and vulnerable. Of representation to a full community, there is no merit to a self-congratulatory declaration that one has gone above and beyond.
There’s not even, truly, a moment to think plausibly otherwise: one simply commits, and recommits, each day.
Odd, too, that in the interview the candidate touts an upcoming proposal on which he’s pinning his and others’ hopes. Whatever the optimism he or his friends have for that project, all Whitewater may be certain that those hopes do not rest on anyone in the city having done even the barest of work in scrutiny or diligence, let alone an amount supposedly ‘above and beyond.’
There’s uncertainty in the year ahead, as with any year, but if there is anything on which one may rely, it’s that there’s even harder work yet to be done.