As I think about this simple two words ‘Good Intentions’ I am often left wondering how does one go from good intentions to bad intentions.

I say this because just about everyone that gets involved with service of their community goes in with ‘Good Intentions’ but if you ask people about politicians (they actually are there to provide service to the community) the common response is they are not there for the people and that they only do what is good for their pockets. So how does one go from ‘Good Intentions’ to ‘Bad Intentions’?

I think this discussion is really rooted in many different answers. It is based on your own personal perception. I do not think all politicians are bad people and have bad intentions. BUT I do think that often good intentions are derailed by not having enough support to do things.

Politics is about giving and taking, which ultimately is compromise. I often use the analogy that if I want a park in my neighborhood and I need to get others to support the park what am I willing to do for their support? Someone else might want stop lights and signs in their neighborhood. So I support their lights and signs and they support my park. In this example no one is really against the idea of lights and signs nor parks. But what if it was something more controversial, like say tearing down homes in a neighborhood to build that park and not having money for the signs and lights? Now are you willing to support something that would displace a community or cut budgets on salaries for employees to afford the lights and signs?

Because so many people have forgotten or worse was never taught basic civics we now have people demanding that people do not compromise and if they do they are bad people. It has become so bad that we have a dysfunctional government due to people not understanding the basics of how things work and also refusing to participate in making things work.

This is just a single example of how good intentions can go bad. There are more examples. such as not electing enough people to get things done and then blaming the elected people for not having enough people to get things done.

That is another post for another day.