Thomas L. I hear what you're saying too! But why do you jump right into the conspiracy label? It's a conversation my friend. I hope there exists...

East Central Branch <maskemail>Post New Message</maskemail> Re: Orange County, FL - Transportation Initiative Reply to Group Online <maskemail>Reply to Group</maskemail> Jul 13, 2022 2:59 PM Jesse Kamm Thomas L. I hear what you're saying too! But why do you jump right into the conspiracy label? It's a conversation my friend. I hope there exists a civic minded middle. The trouble comes when you have two sides claiming a moral higher ground and painting the other as obstructionists, deniers, or worse (you will see this unfold on the other ASCE board on a similar topic). It's no secret that campaigns can and often do tout things like IIJA, or a penny sales tax, as a win in their column when in fact these are mixed bags that have pros and cons - the tendency is to pick and choose which cons we openly talk about and not be honest with one another. We can hope it's just civic minded management of community goods but there's a lot of people jaded and right now I would add are hurting financially in game they feel like can't be won. To me it feels a lot like people in government don't care if people are hurting economically, they have their committees and policies -there's often no middle ground in policy making.  As far as ASCE policy position management goes, Its a difficult place to be in I'll admit. I know there are exceptions but it seems many things are driven by the same buzzword management. I've written a number of funded grants and it's no secret that certain buzzwords are preferred or it wasn't going to be considered. Couple that with just coming off (what I see as an insane) period of irrational fear, shutdowns that destroyed livelihoods and hope, then government policy gifts (PPP) that saved many of those livelihoods at the expense of and right into accelerated inflation. I opine for the notion of avoiding a government that seeks self preservation of the politician and more to the independence of the individual. Yesterday, I noted the ASCE source newsletter has a disclaimer that the articles are AI driven which is interesting because it felt like many of these align with platform democratic talking points. Couple that with ASCE's invitation to a controversial transportation secretary to speak at our national conference. In my opinion, He accepted largely to tout the buzzwords of his platform and what he sees as success in passing the IIJA with ASCE as a prime influence in its passing. My concern is that such actions in itself put ASCE into side choosing. As a member, I don't want ASCE to be an influencer, I want ASCE to be an informer because we represent the collective polarity of views. Plus we're engineering minded people that are thinkers by nature and by education. We don't need or want to be told what to think. For this particular tax - the question was should ASCE take a stance. I answered I preferred that ASCE take a neutral stance and provide informational pros and cons. Where's the conspiracy in that? I suspect that you will be taping into bias in forming an opinion of me that tends towards a political framing. But you don't really know me or my stance or my heart for the community or for the way things are managed or how I feel about you, your firm, or your purpose in life. It's a misstep to say opposition as conspiracy. I think that statement embodies my point. The ability to have a conversation seems lost. ------------------------------ Jesse Kamm PhD, PMP, A.M.ASCE Senior Vice President of Construction Management ------------------------------   Reply to Group Online   View Thread   Like   Original Message: Sent: 07-13-2022 02:17 PM You are receiving this message because you followed the 'Orange County, FL - Transportation Initiative' message thread. To unsubscribe from this message thread, go to Unsubscribe. Update your email preferences to choose the types of email you receive Unsubscribe from all participation emails

Thomas L. I hear what you're saying too! But why do you jump right into the conspiracy label? It's a conversation my friend. I hope there exists...

East Central Branch <maskemail>Post New Message</maskemail> Re: Orange County, FL - Transportation Initiative Reply to Group Online <maskemail>Reply to Group</maskemail> Jul 13, 2022 2:59 PM Jesse Kamm Thomas L. I hear what you're saying too! But why do you jump right into the conspiracy label? It's a conversation my friend. I hope there exists a civic minded middle. The trouble comes when you have two sides claiming a moral higher ground and painting the other as obstructionists, deniers, or worse (you will see this unfold on the other ASCE board on a similar topic). It's no secret that campaigns can and often do tout things like IIJA, or a penny sales tax, as a win in their column when in fact these are mixed bags that have pros and cons - the tendency is to pick and choose which cons we openly talk about and not be honest with one another. We can hope it's just civic minded management of community goods but there's a lot of people jaded and right now I would add are hurting financially in game they feel like can't be won. To me it feels a lot like people in government don't care if people are hurting economically, they have their committees and policies -there's often no middle ground in policy making.  As far as ASCE policy position management goes, Its a difficult place to be in I'll admit. I know there are exceptions but it seems many things are driven by the same buzzword management. I've written a number of funded grants and it's no secret that certain buzzwords are preferred or it wasn't going to be considered. Couple that with just coming off (what I see as an insane) period of irrational fear, shutdowns that destroyed livelihoods and hope, then government policy gifts (PPP) that saved many of those livelihoods at the expense of and right into accelerated inflation. I opine for the notion of avoiding a government that seeks self preservation of the politician and more to the independence of the individual. Yesterday, I noted the ASCE source newsletter has a disclaimer that the articles are AI driven which is interesting because it felt like many of these align with platform democratic talking points. Couple that with ASCE's invitation to a controversial transportation secretary to speak at our national conference. In my opinion, He accepted largely to tout the buzzwords of his platform and what he sees as success in passing the IIJA with ASCE as a prime influence in its passing. My concern is that such actions in itself put ASCE into side choosing. As a member, I don't want ASCE to be an influencer, I want ASCE to be an informer because we represent the collective polarity of views. Plus we're engineering minded people that are thinkers by nature and by education. We don't need or want to be told what to think. For this particular tax - the question was should ASCE take a stance. I answered I preferred that ASCE take a neutral stance and provide informational pros and cons. Where's the conspiracy in that? I suspect that you will be taping into bias in forming an opinion of me that tends towards a political framing. But you don't really know me or my stance or my heart for the community or for the way things are managed or how I feel about you, your firm, or your purpose in life. It's a misstep to say opposition as conspiracy. I think that statement embodies my point. The ability to have a conversation seems lost. ------------------------------ Jesse Kamm PhD, PMP, A.M.ASCE Senior Vice President of Construction Management ------------------------------   Reply to Group Online   View Thread   Like   Original Message: Sent: 07-13-2022 02:17 PM You are receiving this message because you followed the 'Orange County, FL - Transportation Initiative' message thread. To unsubscribe from this message thread, go to Unsubscribe. Update your email preferences to choose the types of email you receive Unsubscribe from all participation emails