What Makes a Commonwealth?
There are only four commonwealths in the Union. Three - Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Virginia - were part of the original thirteen colonies, and Kentucky was the fifteenth member of the Confederation, as it was called back then.
This bit of historical trivia seems important today in light of what is occurring in one of those commonwealths, notably Pennsylvania, concerning the issue of transportation.
So let's review. A commonwealth is a state governed for the common good, literally for the common weal, or common well-being.
Now let's look at what is occurring in the commonwealth's capital with regard to the transportation issue. In an article in this morning's Philadelphia Inquirer the governor's office has said that there will be no "patch" this time to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). No federal highway funds "diverted" to cover the cost overruns in the southeast corner of the state.
But here is the key paragraph:
Legislators representing rural areas of the state, such as Rep. Fred McIlhattan (R., Clarion), said their constituents were reluctant to contribute more money for mass transit, which they saw as benefiting only metropolitan areas.
And to me this is indicative of much that is happening not just in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but also in the nation as a whole. If the "wifum question" (What's in it for me?) does not have an immediate and concrete answer, many of us Americans just say no. Rural is more and more pitted against urban, with suburbanites squeezed in the middle.
Unless we return to conversations about the common good, the common well being of all our citizens - urban, rural, rich, poor and middle-class, children and seniors - then there is little hope that either our standards of living or the quality of our lives will stay the same let alone improve.
Right now "well-being in common" seems less like a platitude, and more like a good way to live, and perhaps the only way we will survive.
[Originally posted on Edd's higherportal/t4c site.]