Previously unpublished 2-minute video: Greg Rice on Jeff Perlman's book, "Adventures in Local Politics"

"If you find yourself catering to complainers that do not have solutions you are going to face a quick descent."
—Jeff Perlman


Community activist, reporter, elected commissioner, then elected mayor of Delray Beach, entrepreneur, and author Jeff Perlman was the speaker at a much-talked-about gathering here in Lake Worth. Use this link for a recap. It was an interesting event and many of the people who attended left with a new perspective.

While going through my YouTube channel recently noticed a previously unpublished video of Greg Rice talking about Perlman's book, "Adventure's in Local Politics". Rice talks about western sprawl, coastal communities left behind, and the consequences: damage to the environment being one. Use this link for my YouTube channel and click the red icon to become a subscriber; you'll get an email when new videos are uploaded. Along with being an excellent speaker, Perlman also has a blog and thought this was especially relevant now the City's referendum to fix all the substandard streets and all the potholes is only 48 days away (as of Tuesday, 9/20). Perlman wrote this:

     If you want to succeed in local politics–I can’t speak for state or federal office–determine who is busy making a positive impact and do what you can to help them. [emphasis added]
     Those people are not hard to find. They serve on boards, mentor children, seek to heal those who are hurting, raise funds for good causes, work hard to advance ideas and create jobs. They aspire. Oh, how I love that word. It makes all the good in this world possible.
     Please those folks. Work hard to help them succeed. Praise and support their efforts.
     As for the rest, well don’t go out of your way to anger them. (You wont have to, they wake up mad).
     Listen to your critics, sometimes they have something to teach you and other times they are simply full of it.
     But they do serve a purpose–they are usually wrong. Their batting average is terrible when measured against the doers in your city. Their predictions of doom and gloom rarely come true and their negativity usually doesn’t amount to much. The worse thing you can do is empower them; that will deflate the contributors and you can kiss progress goodbye.
     On the other hand, if you listen to those who aspire, who seek to do the impossible you’ll find that the word doesn’t exist.
     Oh, you’ll trip a time or two, you may even get some stuff wrong but you’ll be someone whose service mattered. It’s guaranteed. Or you can squander the opportunity and fail.
     It really is that simple.