‘Why settle for less? Why not the best? Keep that in mind from now until May.’
SO it finally came to pass that Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, died and joined the 38 men who came before him plus Reagan and Bush who came after him in presidential heaven. Carter was an unlikely candidate for president, being a governor from a southern state and a peanut farmer to boot.
But he emerged at the “right” time – as America was confronting the fallout from the Watergate scandal, the worst threat to US democracy up to that point. In that troubled political environment, the plain-speaking Georgia governor was the antithesis to Washington politics that the electorate wanted.
On January 20, 1977, Carter took his oath of office – and then walked from the US Capitol to the White House.
Like most US presidents born after the First World War, Carter served in the US military, choosing the Navy as his branch of service. There, he ended up in the nuclear submarine program run by a tough admiral, Hyman G. Rickover. Serving under Rickover must have left such a mark on Carter that he entitled his autobiography with a question the admiral asked him: Why settle for less, why not the best?
It is a question I wish we would always ask ourselves, as individuals and as a collective. In our choices in life for ourselves and for our country, why should we settle for less?
Over the holidays, I spent considerable time with friends much younger than me and I took pride in the fact that I was able to help them see part of the world beyond the confines of our islands.
Mark (25) has been a traveling companion for some time now, but was visiting Japan for the first time. Rafael (14) and Samantha (8) were visiting Hong Kong for the first time, though they had been to Singapore previously. And Arnie (27) and John (24) were also seeing Hong Kong for the first time although Arnie had been to Singapore and Bangkok and even Bali while John was raised in the Middle East.
I don’t think I need to say that the first-timers came home with a new outlook towards the world around us. Especially when it comes to public conveniences like public transport, you can’t do any better than Japan and Hong Kong if you wanted models of how things could be – if only we wanted it.
Getting around Tokyo or Hong Kong – or even through their airports – is such an “awe-inspiring” moment for a Filipino long condemned to suffering from the inefficiencies of how we do things here, of how we plan things and execute them. That’s the beauty I think of seeing more Filipinos travel abroad. More and more get to open their eyes to what’s possible.
But that’s only one half of the equation. Why settle for less, why not the best, will require us to demand it from those responsible for making things happen.
I’ve always wondered – year in and year out, our VIPs travel. What do they take home other than designer stuff? If only they take home the resolve to adopt and implement at home the best things they see abroad – from integrated mass transit systems to expressway toll systems that work — then I wouldn’t mind if they spent half their time traveling the world. Is this wishful thinking?
Then maybe the onus must be on us, on you and me, especially since this year is an election year.
Why settle for less? Why not the best? Keep that in mind from now until May. And remember, if you choose the “less” then don’t feel bad if you get the “less” as well.
Why not the best??
