Senate Sketches # 1086
NOTE: Sen. Hank Sanders has written a weekly column for papers in his legislative district for the past twenty years. These rural, weekly papers lack a web presence, and links to the columns are not typically otherwise available. The column below is provided by Sen. Sanders’ office for inclusion in the Daily News Digest.
Senate Sketches # 1086
By
Senator Hank Sanders
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My mother used to say, “Son, you are a fool if you don’t learn from your own experiences. You are intelligent if you learn from your own experiences. You are wise if you learn from the experiences of others.” I thought about her wisdom as the national debate raged about the values of experience and judgment.
Experience versus judgment. Judgment versus experience. The debate is as old as human endeavor. However, it is really raging now. Two Democratic candidates seeking the presidency of the United States of America are locked in a fierce struggle. One shouts experience. The other touts judgment.
I want to share a story. A young girl watched her mother prepare a turkey to bake for Thanksgiving. When preparations were complete, the mother tied the turkey legs together and placed it in the oven. The girl asked why she tied the legs. The mother said, “I don’t know, but my mother did it. Go ask her.”
When the girl asked her grandmother, she said , “I don’t know why, but my mother tied the turkey legs.” She advised the girl to ask her great grandmother. The great grandmother explained: “Well,” she said, “When I was growing up, our oven was very small. If we did not tie the legs, they would extend against the walls of the oven and burn.”
In this instance, experience caused several generations to continue doing something well after the need ceased to exist. Of course, a wise person may have continued the “leg tying” tradition even if they knew the need no longer exists.
Experience is quantitative; it can be somewhat measured. We can determine what someone did and how long they did it. To count as experience, it must be related to the challenge ahead. Otherwise, it’s just activity in which we engaged.
We can gain knowledge from what we experience. We can also gain understanding. That knowledge and understanding can help us avoid similar pitfalls. It can help us grasp similar opportunities. That is certainly a big plus.
On the other hand, we can be limited by our own experiences. This is particularly true of “bad experiences.” Too often, a bad experience makes us want to avoid a general experience forever. For instance, I have heard men and women say, “If I get out of this marriage, I will never get into another.” They were making judgments about an entire institution based upon one bad experience. If our judgment is bad, we learn the wrong lessons from our experiences.
Judgment is greatly affected by insecurity, especially fear. Judgment is also greatly affected by our needs and especially our greeds. When I was in high school, I walked five miles to see Louise, my girlfriend. Her mother was not home so I stayed until midnight. I was feeling guilty when I left. As I was walking the five miles back, I heard a swishing sound as I neared the cemetery. I thought it was a ghost. I stopped several times, and the sound stopped when I stopped. I took off and ran for two miles. When I could not run any farther and was falling down, I realized that the sound was coming from the pair of corduroy pants I was wearing.
My guilt about violating Louise’s mother’s rules and my fear of ghosts helped me draw the wrong conclusion about the source of the sounds. However, I learned from the experience: When I hear something, I first check myself.
Judgment is not quantitative. That is, it cannot be easily measured. However, we know it when we see. Judgment is what we do with our experiences. The question “why” is the beginning of judgment. In the story, the mother and the grandmother possessed experience but failed to ask “why?,” so judgment did not enter the equation. The little girl did not have experience but she sought to use judgment.
Intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom impact both experience and judgment. One can be ever so intelligent but lack knowledge. One can have extensive knowledge but lack intelligence. One can have both intelligence and knowledge but lack wisdom.
Wisdom and judgment fall in the same category: it’s what we do with our intelligence and knowledge. We can be very intelligent but only look out for ourselves, forgetting the community. We can possess great knowledge but use it to hold others down. Wisdom carries with it the prerequisite that every decision lifts the community as well as the individual. Wisdom is pregnant with the big “We.”
Judgment tempers experience and experience tempers judgment. I would love to have both experience and judgment in leadership. If, however, I have to choose between extensive experience and good judgment, I would choose good judgment every time. As my mother would say, we can learn from the experience of others if we are wise.
Now on to the Daily Diary.
Saturday - I remained in Atlanta but did not attend any further SEC Basketball Tournament games because of damage to the Georgia Dome. I visited my brother and sister by marriage, Sam and Ella. We discussed the Democratic Party Presidential Nomination struggle, particularly developments the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s matter.
Sunday - I called in for Radio Sunday School, left Atlanta and returned to Selma, arriving in mid afternoon. I worked until 10:30 p.m. on Sketches and other matters. Among those I talked with was Dr. Margaret Hardy of Selma.
Monday - I was up at 3:45 a.m. to catch a 7:25 a.m. flight from Birmingham. I traveled to Baltimore and on to Washington, D. C. for a meeting about Black Farmers legislation. I returned to Baltimore, on to Birmingham, and on to Selma, going straight to the house!
Tuesday - I talked with the following: Dr. James Mitchell of Wallace Community College Selma (WCCS); Joyce Bigbee of the Legislative Fiscal Office (LFO); House Budget Chair Representative Richard Lindsey; Josephine Curtis of Selma; George McDonald of Channel 8 Television Station: and James Sanders of Baldwin County about social security issues. I participated in one conference call about the budget and another concerning Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC) issues. I worked until 11:00 p.m.
Wednesday - I worked on many items and discussed community issues with Dr. James Mitchell over lunch. I talked with the following: Khadijah Ishaq of Selma; Selma City Attorney Jimmy Nunn; Deborah Anthony and Craig Strickland of the Legislative Reference Service (LRS); Frank Kummel of Lowndes County; Sherrie Mitchell of Selma; Rev. Franklin Fortier of Selma; Lowndes County Administrator Jackie Thomas; David Butts of the Lowndes County Commission; State Treasurer Kay Ivey; the Governor’s Finance Director Jim Main; and John and Carol Zippert of the Greene County Democrat. I hosted Talk Radio Program Law Lessons and participated in several meetings. I visited J. L. Chestnut, Jr. at home and worked until midnight.
Thursday - I began writing Sketches, handled various matters, and talked with the following: Alabama Department of Transportation Director Joe McGinnis; Consultant Steve Raby of Huntsville; John Tanner of the U. S. Justice Department; Rita Lett of WCCS; Becky Nichols of the Selma Public Library; Jim Main; Dr. Major Madison, Jr. of Concordia College; Lester Brown of the Greene County Board of Education; Lowndes County School Superintendent Dr. Daniel Boyd; and Ola Creache Morrow of Maplesville. I made a stop in Hale County and returned to Selma.
Friday - I met with Dr. McNair Ramsey and Major Madison, Jr. of Concordia College Selma. I helped host Talk Radio Program, Public Conversation. I talked with the following: J. P. Scott and Melvia Holmes of the Selma City School System; Kindaka Sanders of Selma; and Collins Pettaway, Jr. of Selma. I attended a Family Hour for 90-year-old Rosa Whitt, deceased. I talked with various community leaders and worked all day and into the night on Good Friday.
EPILOGUE - We swear by abstract principles such as judgment or experience. However, how we apply these principles demonstrates our real values. In real life we often have multiple competing principles in each situation. Therefore I may insist on experience over good judgment in one situation and judgment over experience in another.
Index of Sanders' Senate Sketches
