Sometimes we embarrass ourselves.  Or allow others do it for us.

But first, if you think about it, almost anytime we flip a light switch, turn on a faucet, or adjust our thermostat, we have electricity, water, or gas at our fingertips.

What do basic utility services have to do with embarrassing ourselves? Well, there seems to be a small, vocal group that becomes livid when anyone else in Springfield is successful either professionally, personally, or politically.  And we erroneously let them speak for all of us.

This recently occurred when Springfield City Utilities brought forward its budget for next year as well as a rate increase for electricity.   For some reason, this brought out the worst in some people . . . and those folks proved to be an embarrassment to the City. 

One of the city’s chronic bad-mouthers (you know, the guy who hasn’t been seen to smile in three years) was complaining about how many individuals made over $100,000 by working at City Utilities.  That seems to be the magic number--$100,000—which trips the irrationality button.  Never mind that CU is an organization that requires a large number of highly technical people.  They employ electrical engineers, civil engineers, chemists, chemical engineers, and—lest we forget—management people who are capable of running a $350 million organization.  Many have advanced degrees or professional certification.

If you look at private sector companies with equivalent revenues, you’ll find the CEO and top staff generally making a lot more than our utility experts are paid.

A friend of mine served in the Peace Corps in western African, and she recently told me that—once she returned to the US and Springfield—she would sometimes just turn on a faucet and watch the water for a minute or two.  To her, it was just so miraculous and clean compared to the water in Sierra Leone, which had to be pumped by hand out of a well into jars.

Of course, there are those odd and rare instances, such as the ice storm, where we’re without for a few days, but for the most part, the power, water, and gas is there.  Just briefly compare that to Baghdad—where the electricity works for six hours a day, but no one knows which six hours it will be.

I’ve heard it said that, “Americans like our utilities, but we hate our utility company.”  It’s one of the great conundrums of our times that—having become so used to having all the utilities at our fingertips whenever we want them—we have developed an attitude of entitlement .  We feel that we are “owed” our utilities—and we don’t want to pay for them.  However, there’s no free lunch for anyone.  Never has been; never will be.

So, let’s celebrate the tremendous asset we have in our local utility.  And, if I recall correctly, envy was one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It’s time now to lay aside the politics of envy.  We Springfieldians are better than that.