Compromising Community

On Sept. 9, 2013, two of the three lanes on George Washington Bridge in New Jersey closed. The resulting traffic backup sent officials into a frenzy, including the Fort Lee Mayor, Mark Sokolich, who texted a Port Authority worker a message on the tenth with a plea for help. However, it was not until Sept. 13, 2013 that the lanes were finally ordered to be re-opened by the Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye. The Port Authority announced that the lanes were closed for a traffic study, but the results of the traffic jams caused delays for emergency services, including one case where a 91 year-old woman died.As time went on, more and more holes became apparent in this cover-up story. The public, and more surprisingly the Mayor, had not been notified, which would have been the case in an official study. Rumors ensued, and nothing was cleared up by Governor Chris Christie, who claimed that neither his staff nor himself knew anything about the cause of the scandal. On Jan. 8, 2014, the public suddenly found themselves in an uproar when documents were obtained by NBC 4 New York: emails between Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s deputy chief of staff, and David Wildstein, a Port Authority appointee of Christie. In one email, Kelly writes “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”Governor Christie made an appearance the next day, apologizing and emphasizing his lack of personal involvement, but also taking partial responsibility for his staff’s actions. Kelly is reported to have been fired, and another political official involved in the emails was punished for his involvement as well.While Governor Christie seems to be taking everything well, it is very plausible that he just has a very good poker face. First of all, he does have a serious reputation for bullying people who oppose him. In one instance, a man named John McKeon made a teasing comment about Christie in 2010, and Christie responded in a very childlike manner, writing the political figure a handwritten letter expressing his anger. Other individuals lost police security, funding and much more for obstructing the path of the state governor. Furthermore, there is reason to believe that the bridge stunt was solely for the purpose of exacting revenge on Mayor Sokolich. All of this makes it increasingly hard to believe that Governor Christie was unaware of this elaborate scheme performed by his closest staff.As astonishing as this is, it almost went unnoticed. Something like this seems to be straight out of a movie. But was this merely a random, deceitful act by people who are supposed to be running our country, or are things like this regularly occurring under our noses? I suspect that it is somewhere in between. Certainly, politicians are constantly trying to get ahead, and many will resort to extreme measures to gain an advantage. But most of those wrongdoings are much more subtle than the Bridgegate fiasco. The voting citizens of our country need to rethink whether a man, like Christie, has the qualities of a state governor, let alone a prospective president.Here at Exeter, concerns have been circulating about whether or not our society has similar authoritative problems. Advisory block and pass/fail prep fall are two changes that were made without the students’ consent or knowledge. Efforts need to be made to better inform the students about issues that directly affect them. In order to create a well-informed environment, StuCo, for example, should be sending out emails, hanging up flyers, etc., so that the people whom they govern can know what is being decided for them in their meetings. Furthermore, large scale changes, such as advisory block, should be polled and liberally discussed before they are put into action.Our community is not one of guile—most administrations make a conscious effort to get the word out. Still, with all our resources, and with everyone within arm’s reach, the amount of voice the average student has is not what it should be. To be fair, there is not a probable chance of a Chris Christie situation within the confines of our campus. The question is whether it is enough to be better than such low standards. We can’t have officials and people in positions of authority sneaking around, and then throwing new changes at us that we knew nothing about until they were permanent, both at Exeter and in the nation’s politics. As citizens of the Phillips Exeter community, everyone should be active and cognizant of change. 