Sounds like Common Sense to me
By Steve Smith

I don’t think it’s mere coincidence that this publication is called “Common Sense.” I know that my friend Bob Donovan is a student of history and that he especially loves American History. And I think it’s all too fitting that this publication should have as its namesake the American Revolution-inspiring pamphlet Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine, in 1775. None of us as far as I know have ever experienced a real revolution in our lifetimes; at least not like the one that paved the way for the founding of this country. Even so, doesn’t it feel to you like Revolution is in the air? It does to me.

We live in a time with challenges that are not too dissimilar from those faced by Thomas Paine and his contemporaries. One of our major challenges is we, as a common people, face an oppressive and outsized ruling government that weighs heavily on everything yet seemingly produces little public good. At times it feels to me like our local government is actively working to suck the life out of our community rather than facilitate progressive growth and prosperity. We cannot continue to allow this to happen.

Common sense is defined as sound, reasonable, “good” judgment.

We all have it. We know it “when we see it,” though it may be hard to explain to others. We are informed by common sense and we react to the world accordingly. Common sense tells us what we “should do” or how we “should act” or react. Common sense also tells us what we should not do or how we should not act. Lately, common sense has been whispering in my ear that it is no longer acceptable to sit on the sidelines and passively accept what is passing for civic and governmental leadership in this city, county, state and country. It is no longer acceptable to behave as though all the problems we see and hear about are someone else’s problems, either to experience or to solve. It is no longer acceptable to merely hope that the people we have elected to office will do the right thing simply because they might be decent people or have their hearts in the right place.

This is our city, our state and our country. It is our right, as well as our solemn duty, to get involved in civic and community matters and work to improve our general society. There is no better time than right now to do just that.

But I, too, feel overwhelmed…where to start? How can I make a contribution to real change that can benefit all? How can we work together for the benefit of Milwaukee? In the spirit of “acting locally,” we must. It is our shared common duty. It’s the same spirit that motivated men like Thomas Paine to aspire to independence from the British monarchy.

Alderman Donovan is proposing that a plan be put together; he is calling for people of sound, reasonable, “good” judgment to come together to take responsibility for developing a plan for Milwaukee’s future. He knows that a failure to plan is a plan for failure. As for me, I’d like to say, “Count me in!”

So, this is a call to action. If enough people get up out of their chairs and get involved and begin to act, can a revolution be far behind? To paraphrase a famous quote attributed to Edmund Burke: All that is necessary for the continued decline of our city is for good people to do nothing.

Sounds like common sense to me…