Editor's Note: This week we introduce a new column, Generous Listening, which gives a more regular space for frequent commentary writer and Fenwick resident Wayne Olson. While Olson is a Pelham Town Councillor, representing Ward 1, more importantly he has enjoyed a 50-year career as a Chartered Accountant and senior executive and business owner in North America, Europe, and Asia. His nuanced take on matters of the moment is a refreshing change from the dogmatic absolutes we so often find today on social media and among TV's talking heads.
I feel compelled to reply to James Culic, (Elect normal people to stop Niagara Region’s crazy tax hikes) because I feel a personal responsibility to hear, learn and change. The problem of exclusion exists, and it involves all of us.
Millennials and Gen Zs are hitting a point of electoral power where they can put into office the people that they see as bringing about the change they want to see in the world. They have access to information in a way no earlier generation did, and they are skilled in social media which allows them to magnify, amplify and organize very quickly.
Leadership for these independent and capable people is not going to be about devising a vision on their behalf and then persuading them to be supportive and compliant. It means listening and engaging in an exploration of values and possibilities. People are hungry for authenticity and are making their frustrations known. They have little time for those who manipulate, and spin—and people have learned how to overthrow those in power.
Inclusion lives in the quality and quantity of conversations that we create and keep, not in making ringing declarations and imposing closure on voices yet to be heard. Conversations in which the future is held to be a perpetuation of the past have no real chance of progress.
So far, the response of my generation has been sterile or patronizing attention, at best. It is important to recognize that it is not incumbent upon the excluded to start these discussions or set priorities, although that is what we are waiting for.
Everything starts with a question, and questions like these do not arise naturally or comfortably. Future leaders will knowingly relinquish the relentless pursuit of absolute, correct answers, and change their emphasis to arriving at ever more subtle questions.
Have I listened when someone challenges or questions my privilege?
Who is with us in this moment, in this room, and at this table?
Who is not here who needs to be and why is that so?
Have we excluded valuable perspectives and experiences?
How often have our new proposals been thwarted by claiming greater priorities, or because it is not in our plan, or that we do not have the resources? A better set of questions would be: Who set the priorities, who laid out the plan, and who distributed the money?
Knowing that we are lucky and fortunate is not the same thing as acknowledging and acting to address our privilege. I am determined to see when privilege dictates my actions and clouds my beliefs. No matter how hard I have consciously tried to share space, I know I have crowded others out of important places.
It is for all generations that we must get it right.