Did you read the recent article in the News Tribune and The Suburban Times where political candidate, Ben Gonter, promotes the idea that having a four year college degree should be mandatory for a political candidate to be properly qualified to serve in pubic office?
While I am not going to comment on the merits of candidate, Mr. Ben Gonter or incumbent, Ms. Marie Barth, I do feel compelled to share a well founded concept that refutes Mr. Gonter’s suggested mandate in which he would require a four year college degree before a citizen would be qualified to serve on our Lakewood City Council.
I support Mr. Gonter’s idea that there is value in education as is evidenced by my having spent four years earning a Batchelor of Arts in Business Administration degree from the University of Puget Sound (UPS) in c1966. While a student at UPS, I had the good fortune to have Dr. John Prins as my professor and college advisor. Dr. Prins was an internationally respected, highly intelligent educator, who held multiple college degrees including a law degree. Sir John Prins was Knighted by the Queen of the Netherlands. Dr. Prins had a vast amount of life experience, stretching from America to Siberia, to go along with his college degrees. What I am saying is Dr. Prins’ opinion regarding the value of education was extremely credible.
Mr. Gonter’s recommended mandate suggesting that otherwise qualified citizens not be allowed to serve on the Lakewood City Council unless they possess a four year college degree reminds me of one of Dr. Prins’ teachings that shines light on two valuable types of education.
Allow me to quote Dr. Prins. “Joe, there are two kinds of learning. One can learn from the life of books, which is what can happen while attending school. One can also learn from the book of life, which is what you learn while living and experiencing life. Both learning sources can be equally important. Either can trump the other. Neither is superior to the other.
You can spot individuals with a college degree or multiple college degrees that are quickly proven to be fools. These individuals look great on paper, but do not function well in real life. They are only capable of making a bad problem worse.
On the other hand I have known individuals who lack even a high school education but are obviously intelligent and accomplished individuals loaded with knowledge, common sense and good judgement. They are thinkers and achievers. You want this kind of individual on your problem solving team.
While I am not saying Mr. Gonter is an idiot, the fact that an individual has multiple college degrees does not mean he is not an idiot.
While I am not saying that Ms. Barth is a genius, the fact that she does not have a four year college degree does not mean she is not a genius.
Here is something else to think about. Many schools give college credit for life experience. So if we combine Ms. Barth’s Associate Degree with her life experience, perhaps Mr. Gonter should refer to Ms. Barth as Dr. Barth.
Yes, I am a staunch supporter of college education and following that, life-long learning. The other side of the coin suggests that in many cases you have to wonder when people brag about how many college degrees they have. A collection of college degrees may just indicate that the degree collector is a “professional student” who lacks a sense of direction. Lacking a sense of direction leads to wasted time and money in college while hiding from real life.
All I am saying is a college degree(s) or the lack thereof should not be the sole determining factor in deciding which candidate to vote for.
Let me close by paraphrasing one of Delta Blues Harmonica player, RJ Mischo’s CD album titles. After all it is possible to possess “Knowledge You Can’t Get In College”.
Well said! LIKE.
Mr. Gonter not only has lost my vote, he has lost my respect. To equate intelligence with the ability to obtain a 4 year degree only further proves that access to education does not mean access to common sense.
Just wonder… who paid for that 4 year degree?
While it is true as Nimmo says that “access to education does not mean access to common sense,” it is also true that occupying space on the council dais most certainly does not connote that the job you would expect of an elected representative is actually getting done.
A single statement does not a candidate make. But a track record of ideas and issues that remain long unresolved can unmake an incumbent.
From Day One Barth has served as the Lakewood City Council liaison to the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC). It was the consensus of the Lakewood City Council March 17, 2014 that the PSAC, struggling to explain its existence given its perceived lack of direction – under Barth’s watch – was consequently directed by the Council to study shopping carts.
The Public Safety Advisory Committee – with safety as its middle name – would not be focused on saving the lives of citizens?
Nope. Shopping carts.
Why a committee with stated policy to assist the police department in matters of safety has as their top priority an APB to pursue shopping carts is a question that still – to this date, 19 months later – remains unresolved. The committee charged with a due diligent response – the committee for which Barth has had oversight – is not only the very committee on which Boyle sits but the same committee which Barth serves that continues to pursue missing shopping carts.
Still.
Meanwhile an October 14, 2015 letter to the TNT editor written by Michael Lacadie suggested that Barth is “a tireless worker striving to improve the quality of life for all Lakewood citizens.”
If ever there was a “quality of life” issue “for all Lakewood citizens,” it would be to have banned smoking – “a leading cause of preventable death and disease in the nation, in Washington State and in Pierce County” (TNT, 1/22/14) – in all of Lakewood’s 12 public parks.
But on Feb.18, 2014 not only did Barth vote with the majority (4-3) of the Lakewood City Council to allow smoking in all of Lakewood’s 12 parks; not only did the council promise but not deliver – two peak summers of park users having come and gone – “an educational and enforcement piece concerning the health issues and penalties for smoking outside designated areas,” as of this writing there remains no evidence of either education nor enforcement.
In fact it was Barth herself who said, “I’d like to see a campaign listing health risks associated with tobacco use” (TNT, 1/19/14).
It never happened.
Barth’s decision on this smoking issue – a deciding one at that – to vote against “quality of life for all Lakewood citizens” was based on her belief that “I just don’t think we need somebody telling us what to do all the time, every day, everywhere we go” (TNT, 1/19/14).
And now a marijuana retail establishment – one of two authorized by the state to locate in Lakewood, indisputably another “quality of life” issue – has challenged Lakewood’s resistance to the sale locally of this hallucinogenic drug.
With “more teens now smoking pot than tobacco, believing that it is safer” – according to Kevin Sabet, a legalization opponent and director of the University of Florida Drug Policy Institute, who served as an adviser on drug issues to President Barack Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – if Barth is re-elected what then?
Carl H. Neu, Jr., president of New and Company and director of the Center for the Future of Local Governance, said that opting for ‘the big picture’ through “exercising wisdom, judgment and courage (is) to be (good) stewards of the quality of the community’s future.”
Given that “each day about 1,200 children and adolescents become daily smokers with adolescents and young adults in the United States the populations with the highest smoking prevalence,” creating tobacco-free parks is the responsibility of government that has as its self-mandated priority the development of a vision for the quality of life of its residents – fostering, emulating, modeling, messaging and carrying out its mission.
But that didn’t happen under Barth’s watch.
That’s odd because just the other day I had a similar experience. I had stopped to take a seat on a park bench for a smoke break and had barely diverted my attention when I turned back and discovered that somebody had stolen my shopping cart full of personal possessions. I was devastated. I then thought to myself, “How does a guy like me, with an advanced degree in Underwater Basketweaving end up like this?” I then realized that I was completely off point and that one thing had nothing to do with the other so I stubbed out my ciggy-butt against somebody’s old political campaign sign and moved on. The End.
Well said Mr Boyle. You put it all in a nutshell, very concise. I have known several people who fit both categories you mention and it always surprises me that so often those with many degrees have little common sense and little street smarts as they say.
Very thoughtful commentary.
Too bad you didn’t graduate from PLU, Joseph Boyle, so you would have learned how to spell Bachelor’s Degree!
So college dropout Bill Gates would not be qualified to be on the City Council. The Council includes two members with doctorates and at least three with masters degrees. We have plenty of degrees. Marie Barth’s experience, knowledge of the community, ability to listen and common sense are highly valued commodities. But then again, I share the author’s experience of being mentored by Professor/Doctor/(Navy)Captain/Sir John Prins. He infused me with knowledge gained from his amazing experience. I’ll take experience any day.