60 Square Miles Surrounded by Reality

Some of our elected officials apparently don’t understand what democracy means.

Sometimes, the majority of those around us think differently than we do, and they vote in policies with which or people with whom I don’t agree. I guess that’s the price of living in a democracy; to me, it’s a fair price.

When this happens, the burden falls on me to persuade my fellow man of my point of view. Dialogue is a good thing.

Apparently, certain members of the Madison City Council don’t quite understand this.

Government workers, including City Council members, are required to swear an oath of allegiance to Wisconsin’s state Constitution. If you don’t happen to live in the Badger state, 59% of Wisconsin voters just passed an amendment to it defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Madison’s mayor, Dave Cieslewicz, along with other City Council members, doesn’t like the new look and feel of the now-amended Constitution. Upon his possible reelection, he and other city workers intend to take their oath of office “under protest.”

“Obviously the real solution is for us to repeal that language in the constitution in the first place," says Madison’s Mayor. ". . . What we (would) have, at least for now, is a way for those of us who are very opposed to that language to be able to take the oath of office with a clean conscience." Translation: the Mayor’s views are better than the Constitution’s, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to conform himself to it.

But that’s precisely the point of taking an oath; we conform ourselves to something outside ourselves. To take an oath under protest is to not take an oath at all, as it still leaves the oathtaker an out in the event they run into something they don’t like.

State law requires the oath, though, so that’s not an option, without resigning from office.

In a democratic society, there are going to be plenty of views with which we disagree. A good leader, though, understands that persuasion is the key to change, and not the force of law. Furthermore, being a leader implies we exercise a certain humility (note: not an overboard one) toward the establishment, disagree though we may.