Might does not make right

APS School Board candidates are finding themselves in the middle of a struggle over power.  Marginalized stake and interest holders want school board candidates to promise them more power.

On the face of it, it seems reasonable for marginalized stake and interest holders to seek more power in decision making affecting their interests.  There are two problems with that approach.

In the first place; power is a zero-sum game.  There is no more power to distribute; whatever is gained by one side is lost by the other.  And secondly, in this case, any power they might gain is not going to come from the powerful; it will be stripped from the even less powerful.

The only way marginalized stakeholders can accumulate power is by stripping it from, and further marginalizing, already marginalized stakeholders.

(The) powerful are not going to give up their power.
If they were inclined to share the power that has been entrusted to them, there would not be marginalized  stakeholders in the first place.

The solution is round table decision making;

a venue where the input from marginalized stake and interest holders sees the same consideration as the input from powerful people sitting around the same table.

If the goal of decision making is to do the "right" thing,
the premise of the process cannot be doing the "might" thing.

There is a distinction between decision making and voting.

Not everybody gets to vote.  Everybody does get to participate in decision making in which they have a stake or interest.  It is there human right.

If elected, I will promote the
creation of venues where
interest and stakeholders can
count on an opportunity to
participate in open and honest
two-way  communication
between the leadership of the
APS  and the community members they serve.



photo Mark Bralley