We need more neighborliness and less anger

Monday’s general membership luncheon of the Lakeville Area Chamber of Commerce had to be moved to darn near breakfast time to accommodate the travel schedule of U.S. Rep. John Kline.

Kline had to catch a plane to Washington so he could get back to the Congressional business of doing what he admits is very little these days.

As he has at other appearances in the recent past, the congressman from Lakeville made jokes about the dysfunction that is Washington. And as a member of the Republican minority in Congress, he criticized President Obama and the Democrats for running up the federal deficit and proposing a health-care plan that he sees as an expensive intrusion by the feds into the business of getting and keeping people well.

Having spent a long career in journalism attending meetings where Republicans bash Democrats and vice versa, it was tempting to write off the Chart House gathering as another speech by a politician preaching to the choir – a Republican, in this case, speaking to a gathering of business folks in a conservative community.

But there were some elements to the meeting that made the gathering more provocative than the standard politician’s lunch talk. For one thing, Kline conceded that the Republicans haven’t taken a backseat to Democrats when it comes to spending more than taxpayers provide. It was refreshing to hear this Republican congressman say that President George W. Bush was as big a spender as the man who has succeeded him.

Another aspect of the meeting that got me thinking was a presentation that followed Kline’s departure for the airport. It was a presentation on a program designed to save lives in Lakeville.

Lakeville Police Chief Tom Vonhof and Kathy Lewis, a school board member and nurse at Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville, talked about Lakeville heart restart!, which was created to train 14,000 city residents in basic CPR. If citizens can get trained in using automated external defibrillators, they said, fewer city residents will die of sudden cardiac arrest.

Vonhof and Lewis were followed at the podium by Bill Schwartz of Apple Valley. He talked about a day last spring when he suffered a heart attack while backing out of his driveway. Thanks to his nine-year-old son calling 911, and a neighbor who is a nurse administering CPR, Schwartz was brought back to life and is healthy today.

It seemed a tad ironic that the first part of Monday’s chamber meeting was about the inability of our public officials to find common ground in pursuit of a better health-care system, and the second presentation was about the way family members, neighbors and first responders gave Schwartz the gift of health and life.

The angry rhetoric that characterizes our political system is getting tiresome. It’s on display in Congress and in St. Paul. Legislation seems more about trying to beat the other party than to serve the common good.

Maybe it’s because I’m idealistic, but I have a feeling even our politicians are tiring of the anger and politics as usual. Whether it’s our Republican governor finding a way to work with a Democratic Legislature or a Democratic President finding a middle ground with Republicans in Congress, we need a little more neighborliness and less us versus them.

The first half of Monday’s chamber lunch was dispiriting: our congressman talking about how nothing gets done because politicians can’t get along. The second half was an uplifting discussion of how we can work together to save lives.

The second presentation made me feel so good I skipped the dessert.

Larry Werner is editor and general manager of Thisweek Newspapers. He can be reached at larry.werner@ecm-inc.com. Columns reflect the opinion of the author