By Rep. John Faulkner | The Faulkner Files™
Sometimes in government, what receives the most attention tells us almost as much as what does not.
On Aug. 27, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” Federal agencies have begun implementing the order for federal maps, databases, documents and other official references. The order does not require Canada or international organizations to adopt the new name. (The White House)
Names matter. History matters. Symbols matter. I understand that. There are legitimate conversations to be had about what we call our public places, whose history we honor and what those names represent.
But as I watched this unfold, I kept coming back to a much simpler question:
What problem does changing the name actually solve?
Because while Washington debates what to call a lake, millions of Americans are trying to figure out how to pay for groceries, housing, medicine, utilities, insurance and everything else that comes with simply trying to live.
Families look at grocery receipts that seem to get longer while the bags seem to get lighter.
Working people wonder why a full-time job does not stretch as far as it once did.
Seniors living on fixed incomes face difficult choices between necessities.
Parents wonder whether their children will be able to afford a home, obtain a quality education and build the kind of life that generations of Americans believed hard work could provide.
Rural communities are fighting to keep hospitals open.
Cities and towns are struggling with aging infrastructure.
Our schools need teachers, resources and support.
Our communities continue to wrestle with crime, poverty, addiction, mental health challenges and the need for economic opportunity.
And around the world, America faces serious questions about war, peace, national security and the safety of the men and women who wear the uniform and serve this country.
Those problems do not disappear because somebody changes a name on a map.
You can rename the lake.
But you cannot rename the problems.
You can change signs. You can update maps. You can issue proclamations. You can create headlines.
But eventually, government has to govern.
That means dealing with the difficult issues that cannot be solved with an executive order or a press release.
It means asking why health care remains unaffordable for so many Americans.
It means confronting our national debt and annual deficits while being honest about the difficult choices required to address them.
It means strengthening public education rather than constantly turning classrooms into political battlegrounds.
It means creating economic opportunities in communities that have watched jobs and young people disappear for decades.
It means protecting the promises made to Americans who worked and paid into Social Security and Medicare throughout their lives.
It means maintaining roads, bridges, water systems, broadband and other infrastructure people depend upon every day.
And it means preserving opportunity for the next generation.
This is bigger than one president, one administration or one political party.
Both Democrats and Republicans have been guilty at times of allowing symbolic political fights to consume attention that could have been directed toward the everyday concerns of the people they were elected to serve.
That is part of what troubles me about our politics today.
Too often, political success is measured by whether something excites a political base rather than whether it improves somebody’s life.
We have become exceptionally good at finding things to argue about.
The harder task is finding things we can agree to solve.
I do not expect Americans to agree on every issue. Democracy was never designed around universal agreement. We are supposed to debate. We are supposed to disagree. We are supposed to bring different ideas to the table.
But somewhere in that process, government must still produce results.
A mother trying to buy groceries needs relief more than another political slogan.
A senior trying to afford medicine needs solutions more than another partisan argument.
A small-business owner trying to keep the doors open needs an economy that gives that business a chance to succeed.
A community waiting for clean water, safer streets, better schools or economic opportunity needs more than symbolism.
They need government to work.
There will always be debates over names, monuments, symbols and what they represent. Some of those conversations are important and deserve serious consideration.
But symbolism should never become a substitute for substance.
Leadership is not merely about deciding what we call things.
Leadership is about deciding what we are going to do about things.
Because long after the maps have been updated and the headlines have faded, the same questions will remain.
Can families afford to live?
Can our children receive a quality education?
Can seniors retire with dignity?
Can working people get ahead?
Can communities feel safe?
Can Americans still believe that tomorrow might be better than today?
Those are the questions that matter.
President Trump can direct the federal government to call Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
But changing what we call a lake will not change what Americans are facing around their kitchen tables.
You can rename the lake.
But you cannot rename the problems.
And sooner or later, the American people will demand that their leaders solve them.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Faulkner Files™ is an opinion column by Rep. John Faulkner. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The People’s Paper MS, its staff or its contributors. The People’s Paper MS welcomes a range of perspectives and presents opinion content separately from its news reporting.
