Axiomatic Civic Responsibility

I’m looking at the “protesters” in Michigan and ruminating on the nature of civil disobedience versus civic aphasia. By that latter term I mean a condition wherein a blank space exists within the psyché where one would expect an appropriate recognition of responsible behavior ought to live.  A condition which seems to allow certain people to feel empowered to simply ignore—or fail to recognize—the point at which a reflexive rejection of authority should yield to a recognition of community responsibility.  That moment when the impulse to challenge, dismiss, or simply ignore what one is being told enlarges to the point of defiance and what ordinarily would be a responsible acceptance of correct behavior in the face of a public duty. It could be about anything from recycling to voting regularly to paying taxes to obeying directives meant to protect entire populations.

Fairly basic exercises in logic should suffice to define the difference between legitimate civil disobedience and civic aphasia. Questions like: “Who does this serve?” And if the answer is anything other than the community at large, discussion should occur to determine the next step.  The protesters in Michigan probably asked, if they asked at all, a related question that falls short of useful answer:  “How does this serve me?”  Depending on how much information they have in the first place, the answer to that question will be of limited utility, especially in cases of public health.

Another way to look at the difference is this:  is the action taken to defend privilege or to extend it? And to whom?

One factor involved in the current expression of misplaced disobedience has to do with weighing consequences. The governor of the state issues a lockdown in order to stem the rate of infection, person to person. It will last a limited time. When the emergency is over (and it will be over), what rights have been lost except a presumed right to be free of any restraint on personal whim?

There is no right to be free of inconvenience.  At best, we have a right to try to avoid it, diminish it, work around it.  Certainly be angry at it.  But there is no law, no agency, no institution that can enforce a freedom from inconvenience.  For one, it could never be made universal.  For another, “inconvenience” is a rather vague definition which is dependent on context.

And then there is the fact that some inconveniences simply have to be accepted and managed.

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Never Must a Pandemic Crisis Be Wasted

Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine in action. Never should a crisis be wasted. The Economist explains:

Where does this lead? Covid-19 will make people poorer, sicker and angrier. The coronavirus is impervious to propaganda and the secret police. Even as some leaders exploit the pandemic, their inability to deal with popular suffering will act against the myth that they and their regimes are impregnable. In countries where families are hungry, where baton-happy police enforce lockdowns and where cronies’ pickings from the abuse of office dwindle along with the economy, that may eventually cause some regimes to lose control. For the time being, though, the traffic is in the other direction. Unscrupulous autocrats are exploiting the pandemic to do what they always do: grab power at the expense of the people they govern.

Klein's Shock Doctrine is summarized by Wikipedia:

[The Shock Doctrine] centers on the exploitation of national crises (disasters or upheavals) to establish controversial and questionable policies, while citizens are excessively distracted (emotionally and physically) to engage and develop an adequate response, and resist effectively.

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What is the Biggest Problem for Society: Government or Business?

There's no doubt in my mind that the government is the biggest problem with our society.

Except for those many times when unregulated corporations are the biggest problem with our society. Here is Exhibit A these days, Boeing's conduct regarding the 737 Max, resulting in 346 deaths. . Tomorrow it will be some more gross misconduct or price gouging by Big Pharma, or Wall Street banks fleecing the taxpayers.

Rather than pushing and pulling on this false dichotomy, can we agree on this compromise: Unchecked power operating outside of meaningful sunshine is the biggest problem with our society?

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Opponents of Effort to Privatize Lambert St. Louis Airport Celebrate

Just when the opponents of privatizing were digging down and getting ready to wage serious war against big money, Lyda Krewson, Mayor of St. Louis, flipped her position.

As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,


Mayor Lyda Krewson on Friday abruptly ended the city’s exploration of privatizing operations at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, citing criticism from residents, business leaders and other elected officials.  “They have expressed serious concerns and trepidation about the process, and about the possibility that a private entity might operate the airport,” Krewson said in a letter to members of a city committee weighing privatization.


Big money didn't win this time, but it took a huge village of people who are not motivated by money.  Today's events proved that bad ideas + lots of money = bad ideas.  I was out of town today, but got back to the city just in time to join the celebration at Yaquis on Cherokee. It was a good time for a photo with my hero, Cara Spencer, who is right on the issues, time after time, and who will fight the fight whenever necessary, with the help of hundreds of dedicated people who go above and beyond because they recognize her for the treasure she is. I don't know the next big challenge for Alderwoman Spencer, but I am certain that she will take the side of her constituents.

Another hero is Tony Messenger, reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. On this web page to the Lambert Airport Sunshine Law website that I recently created, I have listed only some of the articles Messenger wrote regarding the effort to privatize.  He recognized the problems from the beginning and wrote his articles with a laser beam.  There's no doubt that his efforts allowed many others to coordinate their energy against privatization.

Someday, we might know what caused today's death of the airport privatization effort. My best guess is that this deal had such a pervasive multi-faceted stench that it collapsed under various ongoing pressures to expose the details of the process, including the sunshine lawsuit filed by Mark Pedroli. There was a lot to hate about this privatization effort, including the warped incentive structure of the contract with the "Working Group," the apparent self-interested motives of the various players, the sham public hearings and the pie-in-the sky promises of magic wealth-production made by the "Working Group."

All of this must be viewed in the following critical context: the current airport commission, led by Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, has been doing a fantastic job by any metric imaginable. Tonight is a night to celebrate, because the good guys won. Big money failed to completely twist local government to serve its profit-driven whims. The dark lining on this silver cloud is that big money got as far as it got and that it took so much work by so many people to put the brakes on the process.

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Sunshine Law Litigation Regarding Lambert St. Louis Airport Privatization Effort

I’m happy to announce that I have entered my appearance to represent Alan Hoffman and the Sunshine and Government Accountability Project in the recently filed lawsuit against The City of St. Louis and various City Officials. This is a lawsuit based on Missouri’s Sunshine Law, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief against St. Louis City officials and their agents for their failures to be transparent about efforts to privatize Lambert St. Louis Airport. This is an especially good opportunity for me, in that I have the privilege of representing Alan Hoffman, a highly principled man who is willing to go toe-to-toe against the well-monied and politically powerful defendants. Equally exciting, I will be working as co-counsel with Mark Pedroli. Mark is unrelenting, smart and focused, and has an outstanding track record enforcing Missouri’s Sunshine Laws.



In order to better coordinate the exchange of information in this case, I worked over this weekend to design a website to track this litigation: “Lambert Airport Sunshine Law Litigation.” See link below. We will be updating this website with news, court filings and key documents. You are invited to check out this brand new website.

Finally, I’d like to offer a shout out to Gerry Connolly, Cara Spencer, the folks behind "STL Not For Sale" and many unnamed dedicated people who have been serving as eyes, ears and brains to document the disturbing conduct of the St. Louis City “Working Group,” whose activities are the focus of this litigation.

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