COMMENTARY

Editor’s note: This commentary was first posted January25. Given the unwillingness of the Press Journal and the island weekly to inform their readers of the high and mounting cost of Indian River County’s internecine legal battles, the facts revealed here are worth repeating. 

MARK SCHUMANN

All of one sentence, the “Serenity Prayer,” a well-known entreaty written by the insightful 20th Century theologian Reinhold Hiebuhr, says about all that needs to said about seeking peace, both without and within. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Admittedly, peace, harmony and contentment are loosing their currency in a society increasingly inclined to celebrate and honor singular achievement. We can yield to this trend, continuing to see ours as a dog-eat-dog world where the advancement of one person, company, or group must come at the expense of another, but we do so at our own peril.

The reality is that we are social beings, hardwired to thrive in interdependent relationships. Every major religion speaks to our interconnections with each other, with our environment, indeed, with all of creation. Like it or not, we do better when we work together, and we are far more likely to find happiness and contentment when we cease waging war with the way things are.

For far too long, many local leaders have focused their efforts on gaining for the County, for the City of Vero Beach, and for the Town of Indian River Shores advantages over one another. Combined, the County, Shores and City spent close to $1 million in 2015 fighting each other in court and before the Florida Public Service Commission. But the electric issue is note the only point of contention between local governments. These local “squirmishes,” to use Sara Palin’s newly coined term, are consuming vital energy and resources that could otherwise be use to address the Lagoon crisis, improve local infrastructure, provide much needed services, or pay down unfunded pension obligations.

Prior to the current round of wasteful spending on legal fees, the Carroll-Fletcher-Turner Council majority spent some $2 million trying to craft a sales contract with Florida Power & Light that, unfortunately, ignored the reality of Vero Beach’s existing contractual obligations.

Contract law and Florida’s well-established utility law is what it is. These laws are serving the state well. Sure, they may stand as an impediment to those who seek the sale of Vero Electric, but Vero Beach-Indian River Shores-Indian River County is not the center of the universe. Politicians can make all the promises they want, and they can continue to spend/squander millions of tax dollars on high-priced attorneys. Regardless, the laws preventing the sale of Vero Electric are not going to change any time soon.

If the quality of life in Vero Beach and Indian River County is to be preserved and enhanced, more leaders need to step forward who are able to wisely discern what can be changed, and who will then devote themselves into making a difference for good. These leaders, if they do step forward, are going to need encouragement and support from the public.

Quite simply, we need more leaders who have the serenity to accept the things they cannot change, the courage to change the things they can and the wisdom to know the difference – and we need to be prepared to stand behind them.