Fresh faces can help bring R.I. back from the brink

Jeffrey S. Deckman

10/30/2010

While there is a glimmer of hope (and I will cover that at the end of this piece), the fact of the matter is that it may be too late for Rhode Island to turn things around without there being a significant implosion of our state and local governments.
The reason I say this is because of something I refer to as “Financial Physics.” Financial Physics is a term that describes the phenomena which occurs in any type of organization at which the conditions, both external and internal, have gotten to the point where no matter what you do, there is no pulling out of a financial death spiral.
Most of us can’t imagine such a thing, because while we may have gone through some tough financial times either personally or professionally, we typically pull out of them without getting to the point where a downward trend crosses the tipping point and becomes a true death spiral. I happened to come face to face with this situation in the mid-1980s when I had a business that went bankrupt.
My partners and I started the business in 1981 with a few dollars, a few employees and a dingy office in the back of a Citgo gas station. By 1986 we had grown it into a $5 million company, 108 employees and offices and operations in six states. But we started running into financial problems because the company became so big, so fast that we began encountering problems that were larger and more complex than we had the capabilities or the courage to fix. (A similar set of conditions, I fear, are facing the current leadership of the General Assembly.)
In a short period of time the problems began compounding exponentially, as they always do when you can’t get a grip on them. They grew larger and even more complex, and before we knew it Financial Physics had kicked in and we were goners. No amount of hard work, denial, anger, deal-cutting or advice could save us. So even though we worked harder than the crew of the Titanic to bail ourselves out, our fate was sealed. We had waited too long, the problems were too large and we were sunk.
So the question is: Is this where Rhode Island is today? Are we past the tipping point? Are the problems too large and complex? Do our leaders have the level of understanding and courage necessary to do what needs to be done? Or, has the irreversible avalanche of Financial Physics already begun?
I had been thinking that we had reached that point up until about the past three months. I am now beginning to feel a glimmer of hope for Rhode Island for the first time in a long time.
The source of that hope is the scores of men and women who I have had the opportunity to speak to in my role as a member of the candidate-endorsement committee of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition Business Network.
These people are inspiring. Each of them is determined, “clean,” hard-working and committed to facing our current reality, and actually doing something about it. Every last one of them sees holding pubic office as a commitment to public service. None have taken any money from public service unions and most of them have refused to accept a penny from any political action committees at all. In addition, each of them is walking their districts and spending countless evenings and weekends attending limitless public forums and events. (Imagine the level of commitment it takes to knock on 4,000 doors in order be given a chance to serve others!) These candidates truly exemplify the fundamental qualities we all admire when we think of our state’s icon: The Independent Man. They are owned by no one. And each is determined to breach the walls of the Statehouse to engage in the type of tough, political, hand-to-hand combat that it will require to save the state from imploding under the weight of the special interests’ self interests.
These men and women represent the best chance we have to avoid an economic disaster that will make the banking crises of the ’90s look like just another “bad hair day” on Wall Street.
The RBN-endorsed candidates reflect your thinking, ethics and values. They, like you, are men, women, Democrats, Republicans, moderates and independents. Each has a real love for our state and a very real respect for the awesome responsibility that comes when one citizen asks another for the single most valuable asset any American has: his vote.
This is the most impressive group of candidates I have seen rising up against the special interests in the 20 years I have been in politics. It is a groundswell of energy from nonpolitical people who have decided that enough is enough, and they are just the people to bring sanity back to government.
When was the last time any of us thought that was possible? Well they do, and they are determined to be successful.
But they need your help and they need your votes, and they need them now.
Go to www.RBN2010.com for a complete list of the RBN-endorsed candidates. •

Jeffrey S. Deckman has built several small businesses in Rhode Island since 1981. Currently he is a leadership and organizational-development consultant. He helped create the RISC Business Network.

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