By Phil Power - April 2, 2009
My old friend Mark Murray is one of those people whose name you may not know, but who helps make Michigan great.
Mark is one of those treasured few whose brains, competence, experience and common sense help make our state the wonderful place it is. He has made a practice of staying out of the limelight, but his career has been nothing short of dazzling.
He served at the very top of state government, as director of the Department of Management and Budget and as State Treasurer. And he has had, if anything, even more influence on education.
Murray has been vice president for finance at his alma mater, Michigan State University, and was Gov. John Engler’s appointee to the reformed Detroit Board of Education when the state took over the city's public schools. After a widely praised stint as president of Grand Valley State University, he entered the business world with a bang when he was picked to be president of Meijer, Inc.
I got to know Mark's father, John Murray, a long time ago, when I was just starting out in the newspaper business. He had been a key advisor to G. Mennen Williams when Soapy was governor (1949-61) and later taught journalism at MSU. John was one of the wisest men I ever met, and so his son and I fell naturally into a friendship.
The younger Murray is also a member of the Steering Committee of The Center for Michigan, a non-partisan, non-profit outfit I started back in 2006 to try to develop a common ground, common-sense citizen agenda for Michigan's transformation.
The other day, Mark Murray and I had a long and thought-provoking conversation. Part way through, he said: "If we really want to transform Michigan, we'd do well if we figured out ways to get beyond the usual public policy framing that we hear about all the time and get to things that every person can do in their daily life that will result, over time, in a transformed state."
"Like what?" I asked.
"I keep thinking about two," Mark responded. "First, what if every child in Michigan – every child! – was read to by a parent every day? And second, what if every family – parent or parents and kids – ate dinner together every day?
"Just doing those two things would change forever the development of children. They'd make such a difference here – or anywhere. And they’re the kind of things every person can do …without depending on the government doing it for them."
That common sense and wisdom bowled me over.
Every mother knows how important it is to read to little kids, not just for what they learn but for the kind of bonding that takes place when they're little. One of the happiest things I do with my little granddaughters, age three and four, is to sit on the floor in their bedroom and hold them in my lap and read to them just before they go to bed. My son and his wife do that every night when my wife Kathy and I are not visiting, but for us to get to do it is special.
But I know that, sadly, lots of kids go to bed at night without being read to. And every father knows how vital it is for the entire family to get together around the table, sharing not only food but also what it means to be family, not just a collection of individuals, randomly associated. Now I realize that today's way of living is fast-paced and harried, and conflicting schedules often make it impossible for an entire family to eat together every evening.
But I also remember that having dinner with my own parents most nights was what brought me to the conviction that of the things that are most important, family has got to be right at the top.
Now contrast these simple, human things with the sorts of stuff that newspapers (those still publishing) and bloggers, politicians, and so-called experts think are important.
You might have read about them in any number of Lansing-based news services last week. Members of the legislature and the governor are going to take a 10 percent pay cut, a symbolic step in the face of the recession. Seventy-four members of the House of Representatives members have asked the governor to reverse her idea that any proposed new coal-fired power plants get a special environmental review, thereby slowing approval and construction.
And the governor signed into law authorization for Michigan craft breweries to share facilities with wine makers.
All that is important in a way, no doubt. But not significant.
Those of us who worry about our state, its politics and its public policies regularly look at the world through a framing process that confuses what's momentarily important with what's truly significant.
What's worse, many of us tend to assume that to make a change for the better, we’ve got to get government to do something first, to authorize or subsidize it, or outlawing something.
Rubbish.
What people do in the divinity of their ordinary lives is what's truly significant. Making sure that no child goes to bed without being read to by a caring adult. Taking the time and effort to gather the family around a common table to break bread. Mark Murray knows that. It's why he is such a force for common sense and the common good. And it's why I treasure the chance to talk with my old friend from time to time.
***
Editor's Note: Former newspaper publisher and University of Michigan Regent Phil Power is a longtime observer of Michigan politics and economics, and a former chairman of the Michigan chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He is also the founder and president of The Center for Michigan, a centrist think-and-do tank which publishes the Michigan Scorecard. The opinions expressed here are Power's own and do not represent the official views of The Center. He welcomes your comments at ppower@thecenterformichigan.net.
4 Comments
"That common sense and wisdom bowled me over."
— Gee, if reading and eating dinner together are so wonderful for the society, just imagine what could happen if we could provide health care for it too.
Yes, Mark is indeed a smart man to understand that spending and making time for things, like reading to your children, or making sure that you sit down to a meal, with your family is something significant that we all can do.
However we need to remember that not all families even have their basic needs met (no jobs, no healthcare, losing homes, etc.) just to survive and are simply struggling just to stay off the streets.
You can bet that it would be hard to think of spending time reading books to your children or even to having the thought of sitting down to the dinner table to share a meal when either you don’t have a book to read, a table to sit down at, or have enough food to eat—or are living with the fear of losing those things.
That to me is more of what we, as a society, should be most concerned about right now.
Why not instead spend time together as a family helping at a soup kitchens, homeless shelters, or mission houses, or with helping to build a home with Habitat for Humanity.
Children living in shelters have few possessions –if any– including toys. Homeless parents have more urgent demands on what little money they have, such as food and clothing. So often these children have nothing to play with and little to occupy their time. Your family can make a project of donating toys, books, and games to family shelters to distribute to homeless children.
Every one of us has something we can give the homeless (without government having to fulfill that need). Wherever our interests may lie–cooking, repairing, gardening, and photography–we can use them for the homeless. Through our hobbies, we can teach them useful skills, introduce them to new avocations and perhaps point them in a new direction.
These are all things we can do to enrich and reward our own families, in our daily lives, through our giving and sharing with those who are less fortunate than ourselves.
"This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in." ~Theodore Roosevelt
I think Marks comments about reading to our children and eating meals togeather go a long way to prevent the problems we are now experiencing in our society. My wife always read to our children and most of the time we ate meals togeather whenever possibile. Now that our children are grown up and we have 10 grandchildren she reads to the grandchildren that are local. For the ones that are at a distant we purchase two idenical books at the used book store. We send one to our sons house and keep the other book. My wife will read a book by phone to the grand children that live at a distance.
As you imply…many parents have always done this and now some of us see our kids doing it within their families and it is and always will be the way to transform the world or the state…one family at a time. It has never been nor will it ever be the government that makes sustainable change for the better. Its role is to make it possible for families and individuals to make change and do good…and stay out of the way!
Post a Comment