This morning, I asked a single – but perhaps puzzling – question:
What did Burt Bacharach and Jackie DeShannon know in 1965 that Whitewater’s city manager, officials, politicians, so-called ‘people of influence,’ and press do not understand even now?
Here’s the answer. In 1965, singer Jackie DeShannon had a pop hit with Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now.”
I have embedded, below, a YouTube video clip of DeShannon singing the song. (The performance is dated, but in a way that makes her stilted dancing almost beguiling, I think.)
Bacharach writes, and DeShannon sings, about how
….we don’t need another mountain,
There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb,
There are oceans and rivers enough to cross,
Enough to last ’til the end of time.What the world needs now,
Is love, sweet love,
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of…
They had their priorities straight in 1965 – material things, no matter how majestic or beautiful, are not what America most needed. They asked instead for love – and here they meant loving kindness, surely – to make the world a better place.
It is the fundamental values of the American tradition that matter most.
What Whitewater needs now, more than ever, is a commitment to individual liberty, free markets, and an honest acknowledgment of how we have fallen short of that commitment.
(A city or organization can also make improvements from another direction – modifying behavior to change attitudes. I would typically advocate beginning from first principles, but the opposite approach is possible, too.
It doesn’t matter: a behaviors-first approach has not happened in Whitewater. On the contrary, our administration offers excuses for misconduct, and praises trivial accomplishments. All the while, it proclaims its own great experience, professionalism, etc.)
A transformation in our thinking – embracing liberty, and private initiative – will make us a better city in which to ‘live work, and play.’
No number of municipally-financed projects will save this city from recession, or eclipse by neighboring communities.
No amount of cheerleading will serve us when we ignore, disparage, and transgress against the liberties of our fellow residents.
No lemming-like insistence on uniformity of thought will uplift or enrich us.
No expenditure on marketing will polish a reputation tarnished through rejection of America’s heritage of free people and free markets.
We will always be at our best when we embrace the American tradition of liberty.
Bacharach and DeShannon had it right, in their own way. Profound virtues matter. From that foundation much else is possible.