March 2000 

The Gift of Public Service

By Senator Ember Reichgott Junge

What does public service mean to you?

Find out what our readers had to say.

As I begin my last legislative session, I find myself reflecting on 18 years of public service. I offer these lessons I have learned -- sometimes painfully -- from colleagues, constituents, and family. Each can be applied to our personal lives as well:

1. There is more than one right answer. It is not about my right answer and your wrong answer. It is about bringing people together to find another right answer. The search for the next right answer unlocks our creativity and frees us from the unreasonable fear of making a mistake. It allows us to resolve seeming unresolvable partisan conflict.

2. Stay connected to your passion. Passion is the energy and vision in each of us that propels us to use our talents. Our passion gives us purpose. The gift of public service allows us to pursue our passion and make an immediate difference in the lives of others.

3. Celebrate the small victories. Change in the public forum can be frustratingly slow. But that’s how mountains are built. For example: while women still are only 28 percent of the Legislature, in 18 years we have seen women legislators change the public agenda from "women’s issues" to priorities for all -- like health care, education, and investment in our youngest children.

4. Restore a human face to the Capitol. The public debate at the Legislature is about tax relief, bonding public buildings, and highways. What about the issues families struggle with each day? I long to hear the words "families" or "children" or "violence prevention" in the governor’s initiatives. They aren’t there. Let’s not forget the human agenda.

5. Public servants provide voices for people who don’t have them. Voices stifled are opportunities lost. Involvement, not intimidation, is the answer.

6. Let citizens take the lead. Public service is sometimes about letting go -- encouraging the innovation in every citizen; then removing the barriers, encouraging risks, rewarding new ideas, and learning from the inevitable mistakes. I call it "free to be better." When barriers are removed, the solutions keep on coming. We’ve seen that in charter schools.

7. Public service is about doing something important, not being important. It’s easy to get the two confused. The need to make political points, to justify our worth to constituents, to satisfy egos can get in the way of good public policy and finding the next right answer. To the extent we rise above that, individually and collectively, Minnesotans will be best served.

8. Most public servants are hard-working people of integrity. That’s what makes our government work. Most legislators work hard to do the right thing. Our system may not be perfect, but Minnesota’s accessible Legislature has led the nation in innovative solutions like health care reform, education reform, campaign finance reform, and tobacco endowments. Let’s celebrate that.

9. Women’s voices must be heard at the Statehouse. Regretfully, women’s voices are being drowned out in the media flurry surrounding the governor and the male tripartisan leadership. All three political parties are led by men. Yet, the 2000 elections will likely be decided by women. To the extent women voters hear voices like their own, talking about issues meaningful to them, they will be involved. That’s good for Minnesota. Public debate benefits from strong women’s voices.

10. The gift of public service is the gift of presence. It is being there for our constituents and colleagues. It is listening to constituents who want to know their legislator cares about them. It is being a role model for schoolchildren. It is being there for others, while not sacrificing the gift of presence with family and those who mean most to us.

Let the 2000 legislative session be not one of partisan grenades, screaming and shouting. Let it be one of listening, working together, and finding the next right answers.

Sen. Ember Reichgott Junge, DFL-New Hope, is Senate Assistant Majority Leader. She is completing 18 years in the Minnesota Senate, having announced she will not seek reelection. She has been an advocate for children and families, crime prevention and education, and is perhaps best known as author of the first charter school law in the country. She practices business law with "The General Counsel, Ltd."