Editor’s Note: It is Day 128 of the Great Con II. We lost a legend this week in Jane Goodall. I regret that she left us at such a time that the leadership of women has been called into question by the archetype of cavemen. Hers was a life built upon service to a greater good. In addition, the administration continued to divide the country with talk of internal enemies, and called US generals to a Soviet-style gathering to inform them what the meaning of toughness is.

The rabbit hole runs deep.

I recently visited some medieval cathedrals in England and France, from Canterbury to Paris to Bayeux. This was not a religious pilgrimage but one to learn from and admire the passion of both believers and builders. Inside these grand structures are efforts to bend light into dark places and preserve a sense of intimacy between a God and a man. You know deeply that you’ve entered a sacred space. There are the initials of builders in a wall or roof here, the worn-down marble steps where many a pilgrim came to pray. The tales of families, patrons, and clergy are throughout, a testament of those who spent their entire lives building for something to last beyond their lives. It was the medieval equivalent of giving back to show one worthy of moving up to heaven.

Many of the builders of the day showed remarkable foresight in their approach to craftsmanship and stewardship. They understood the long-term nature of their work and the inevitable need for ongoing restoration.

They often used local material and planned well into the future, knowing the structures they erected would require care over centuries. Through sustainable forestry, thoughtful resource allocation, and design choices built to last, they embraced the responsibility to ensure that generations far beyond their own could maintain, adapt, and preserve these monumental achievements. Their legacy is not just in stone, marble, and timber, but in the enduring ethos of building for a future they would never see.

I’ve always approached my work as a public servant in this regard; to leave things better than I found them, or at least leave the ability for future generations to maintain the good that has been started.

Now I wonder if despite our work, the foundations that we pass on are continuing to erode? Our well-meaning efforts in conservation, health, and education are being completely undone by religious zealotry and charismatic personalities.

How did we get here?

It comes, at least in part, from purposeful fragmentation.

During 14 years in the health arena, I witnessed endless committees and meetings convened to assess programs, curry favor, and triage services, yet all the while, the system edged closer to collapse by minimizing what actually works. Public health is in crisis amid rising prices, fewer insured, and the basic promise of “care” receding out of reach for the average American.

Conservation, too, often carries the same wounds. One sees heroic campaigns for endangered species or preservation of land while development and climate change gnaw away at the web of life at a speed no ethos has matched.

In education, we see passionate debates over curriculum and an outsized focus on school safety while the deeper mission of awakening human potential is battered by zealotry and legalese.

These observations are the cumulative ache of years in public service. When there is no sense of shared purpose for lasting progress, the outcomes maintain a shortsighted and unsustainable status quo.

This approach is doomed to fail if absent any long-term connective tissue, a sense of a shared purpose for lasting progress. Fragmentation via short-term vanity programs and initiatives is not mere inefficiency, but a threat to the very systems, our great cathedrals, we hope to save.

Practically, this does mean the unglamorous labor of reconciling conflicting regulations, visions, and scattered efforts, but it also means building capacity for leadership that sees in systems beyond program or agency lines. It means moving to outcomes that endure more than quarterly achievements or political terms.

We must challenge the present governing ethos. It is not about getting rid of workers or making arbitrary cuts. Instead, we need leaders who see beyond their tenure, who measure their success by the possibility of never leaving problems undone. It means we must address core issues such as rising medical bankruptcies, collapsing pollinator networks, and a generation of students trained to find education boring instead of creative.

This can be done.

The will exists in every frustrated teacher, burned-out nurse, and fatigued conservationist. They are exactly that way because they feel the weight of collective responsibility. They know it and see it but are limited by these old models and purposefully fragmented structures.

We need connection beyond any one group or program identity, the courage to see beyond our own positions and homes, and a ceaseless refusal to give up on a multi-generational view. Public service must not be an endless series of apologies, but a living testament to the power of seeing, and strengthening, the whole.

If we fail at this, we leave only regret and mess for our grandchildren to puzzle over. The cathedrals of education, health, and conservation we build need to be a testament to future generations of Americans. Education that inspires. An environmental ethos that frowns on profit that leaves waste. A healthcare system that reduces debt and increases life.

If we succeed, future eyewitnesses will not see the unraveling, but a sustained focus on renewal.

That this generation finally got it.

It’s not about momentary greatness, but sustainable good, beyond our time here.

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With a read like this, I typically have to call upon my better angel. I’ve often noticed that those with unchallenged beliefs end up with a hard time empathizing with others, until something happens to them. It’s as if the belief requires blinders for facing reality.

The mountain of lies from the current occupant were well known, and the implementation of Project 2025 was forecast for the loss of decency and democratic norms we are now experiencing.

I have struggled to accept a person’s surprise at the current outcomes.

In the case of this story, it is the words from “the mouth of babes”, the son, who may finally open his father’s eyes to the great con. It is a sad read for problems that were avoidable with better decision making. I include it because there is a real authenticity to it, and the message here is this: if we learn to appreciate someone else’s pain as much as our own, we will be much more likely to evolve as humans in both word and deed.

If you saw any news from two weeks ago, this one was hard to pass by. It was disturbing. While the officer in this case appears to have been initially disciplined, it is now reported that he is back on duty.

My friend, Dr. Mark Yacht, a lifelong public servant, allowed me to use his piece:

Journal: THE ABSOLUTE BOTTOM, Marc J. Yacht, MD, MPH

September 27, 2025

 I remember a movie years ago, I can’t remember the name, or even the actor who portrayed a man who did business with the Nazis. He stayed neutral to the unleashing horrors of Hitler until one day; while visiting a factory, he saw a man hanged by the SS (Protection Squad) for joining a strike. Well, he thought, you hear of thousands of deaths, but you only have to see one. After witnessing this atrocity, he became a committed and active anti-Nazi.

 Today, upset by the terrible politics reaching so many directions in our country and abroad, I still went about my routine feeling the weight of the nation’s potential march to fascism but not feeling broken, still feeling positive, still expecting to wake up from the nightmare of the Trump administration. Then it happened, a minor incident in the schema of the attack on the courts, the universities, the institutions, the attack on thousands of perceived enemies, and the misinformation from this administration.

 A petite Latin woman, perhaps Mexican, possibly from Venezuela, who knows, clung to her husband under the eyes of her children. ICE had arrested him and was attempting to take him from his family. The woman was pleading, holding on to her husband, crying when an ICE agent wrested her from her spouse and threw her on the floor. That was my bottom today. It finally struck me, the country that I grew up in was no more. I felt broken, on the mat, and unable to recover. The pain and anguish overcame my usual sense of being an observer deflecting what I witnessed.  Now, the realization that the country is being driven from a free society, led by monsters overcoming any pushback.

 I remember the feeling, that you can’t look at too many things, you have to look at one individual’s pain. It then becomes very personal. One terrible wrong provides the focus you need. That focus can break you or make you stronger. The decision to give up and march in step or fight the overwhelming oppression. I am still not sure which will be my direction. Right now, I am just trying to hold myself together.  

Marc J. Yacht, MD, MPH

Hudson, Florida

"I'm too busy to get old!!

And Now….

Wherever you are, however you can, you must not accept this time as normal. You must view it as temporary, as the obsolete model it is.

Keep up your reading habits to strengthen your mind and your search. Continue to practice your gratefulness.

Find time to listen and consider…

what am I leaving behind?