This morning, Gazette ran what I consider to be a well-written and balanced story, discussing whether financial and personal adversity faced by our leaders is relevant information for the voters, which I strongly feel it is. Voters, and I consider myself to be one, deserve to know who we are voting for. When a person chooses to be in the spotlight that comes with public service, a greater amount of scrutiny is to be expected. At the same time, I do not believe that being divorced, losing a house or filing bankruptcy, should make one ineligible to serve in public office. Provided laws are being followed, that's what elections are for - to determine who is and is not eligible to serve the public.
For highlights of my interview this morning, please check out the following:
We live in the world that is full of volatility, and fair amount of it is beyond our control. If you have an adjustable rate mortgage that is fixed for a few years, but when the time comes up for you to refinance, you are no longer eligible for the products available in the market, or if a company decides to outsource its jobs to overseas, all someone affected by this calamity can hope for is that tomorrow is better than today.
The really important questions are how do we handle the obstacles that come our way and what have we learned? Do we walk away, shuttered by a failure and never try again, or do we dust ourselves off and move forward? This is a particularly relevant question for our political leaders because voters need to know how leader handles a difficult situation. Will he or she hide the facts or will they level with the voters, confident in the voters' ability to understand the situation? Can a leader handle one of the hardest challenges of public office - transparency - or will this person instead obfuscate and cover up?
As I mentioned to Tim Bremel this morning on WCLO, to me this is old news because my bankruptcy became final two years ago and I moved out of the house that apparently will be sold in a few days, over two years ago as well. The reason I moved out was because I was not comfortable living in a place that I was not paying for. It was a difficult decision because a lot of effort and money was spent to make that house a home, but you have to look facts in the face, and act accordingly. I feel proud that since that difficult time, I went back to school and got my master's degree in mass communication from UW - Whitewater, bought a house with my finance and am about to begin teaching at a college.
It is my hope that with the Gazette bringing this issue up and me speaking candidly about it, more people will be able to look this kind of adversity square in the eye and handle it without letting it destroy lives. We went from living in the world where a person worked at the same job until retirement, to a world where you had a job until you found a better one, to a world where you hang on to a job for dear life and hope not to lose it, even if it means spending hours each day driving there and back, seeing your pay cut and being vilified by politicians. As these realities change, we need to adjust what it is that we value most and what our priorities are.
I know that many in Janesville and beyond are well familiar with what I went through, not just because it was so extensively covered by the Gazette and WCLO, but because so many people have been affected by the same powerful economic forces and have also paid the high price of starting over. I believe that this experience, it made me a better public servant and hopefully a more compassionate human being. And if I can help those struggling with financial and personal difficulties by sharing my story and by taking some stigma out of it, then I feel that I'm helping do my part in moving our community forward.
Yuri Rashkin
For highlights of my interview this morning, please check out the following:
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