“She is uniquely qualified in her capacity as a lawyer to benefit our Planning Commission decisions. She is also involved in many local nonprofits and her dedication of 11 years … to bring awareness to breast cancer is remarkable.”
Never have truer words been spoken about a dedicated public servant, Denise Lite.
The city of Santa Clarita is growing and as it grows and expands, we need to ensure we have nimble, fresh thinking in our city that can adapt to this new era. Not just Santa Clarita, not just the United States, but the whole world is undergoing massive, dramatic changes. The way we work, the way we do business, indeed how we live our lives is going to undergo a massive change with artificial intelligence.
If we thought the pandemic was going to upend our lives, we have seen nothing yet.
We are going to need leaders with fresh thinking, clear-headed thinking and the capacity to focus on the facts. Dare I say someone with the training to get to the heart of the matter, the root cause of an issue and to effectively build an argument and consensus. Dare I say, a lawyer perhaps, a community leader perhaps? Someone with a deft, clear communication style, someone perhaps with a Lite touch? Remind you of anybody?
In the past four years, we’ve seen at a national level when we elect leaders who play by the old rule book. Who cannot adapt. Who have spent their lives in politics. Who only know their way and who do not know when to retire with grace and dignity.
In politics, it is easy to think you are indispensable, that you and only you alone know all of the answers. That somehow if only people truly recognized your greatness, everything would be great. That the staff are incompetent and are at fault.
Indeed, for those of us who read the Bible, we all know the stories of the Pharisees who were totally inflexible and who judged every newcomer, whether John the Baptist or our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, against their own traditions and rigid behaviors.
However, we have to ask ourselves whether in an age of change are we truly comfortable using the old playbook of the past or whether we’re ready to chart a new course?
I lived in Southampton, the home of the Mayflower. Let us remember the Pilgrims who chartered a new course to a brave new world. Last weekend was Independence Day. Let us remember the Founding Fathers who rejected the status quo and who knew we needed fresh thinking.
Let us remember Ronald Reagan who said, “Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: ‘We the People.’ We the People tell the government what to do; it doesn’t tell us. We the People are the driver; the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world’s constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which We the People tell the government what it is allowed to do. We the People are free.”
Let us now consider what type of person should serve, “We the people.” What attributes do we want them to have? What would our ideal leader look like?
Would they be a successful business person? Would they know the law? Would they have given back to our community?
Would they be seeking office for the power and trappings or because they want to change our community? Would they want to serve for ever more or because they recognize that We the People must always come first?
Would we want them to have a light touch or be heavy-handed?
Would we want them be “uniquely qualified”?
I suspect we all know the answer. For the answer is “Lite Here, Lite Now.” It is time for real change in Santa Clarita. It is time for a new Lite.
Neil Fitzgerald is an international nonprofit leader having served in the U.S., U.K. and globally for various nonprofit and charity boards. He served as a conservative council member in the U.K. and as a campaign manager. “Right Here, Right Now” regularly appears on Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans.
