Rob Wonderling has the answers. Really, he does. It's all right there in his book."Talking Pennsylvania: 21 Conversations for the 21st Century" offers practical solutions to most of the major problems facing the Keystone State.
From health care to education to open space preservation to economic opportunity, the goal of the book and its companion Web site is to "help the people of Pennsylvania build a better 21st Century."
That may sound like a tall order, but it can be done, Wonderling argues.
Instead of telling people how government can solve all their problems, Wonderling took a different approach.
The two-term state senator went to the people of Pennsylvania and asked them to offer solutions. Real Pennsylvanians — 21 in all — who have the daily challenge of running their homes, farms and businesses.
If you want to address about farmland preservation, sit at the kitchen table with a farm couple trying to save the family dairy farm for their children.
How to keep young people from leaving Pennsylvania after they graduate from college? Talk to a recent graduate who says she will probably need at least a decade to pay off her student loans.
Welfare reform? Talk to a 21-year-old single mother of two who is trying to move off welfare by earning an associate's degree from a community college.
How to improve public education in Pennsylvania? Talk to the principal of a charter school about why the educational establishment is still trying to undermine Pennsylvania's charter school movement despite a decade of success.
Wonderling collected the conversations he had with everyday Pennsylvanians into a slim, 147-page book available free of charge through his offices or online at the companion Web site, www.talkingpa.com
Before you start complaining about how your tax dollars are being spent, the project was paid for by Friends of Rob Wonderling, which funded the senator's successful 2002 and 2006 election campaigns.
Wonderling spent a year traveling to all parts of Pennsylvania. He listened to people. He took notes. He recounts what he learned in 21 short (5-7 pages long) chapters in the book.
The best hope of building a brighter future for Pennsylvania lies not politicians but with the people of Pennsylvania, Wonderling says.
"While they are not politicians in any sense of the word, their lives intersect with matters of public concern in Harrisburg," Wonderling writes. "In a very real sense, their stories can serve as a road map for our collective future as citizens of this Commonwealth."
What did Wonderling learn during his journey? The solutions to many of the state's most pressing problems are here already.
The problem is that state government doesn't listen. It's a one-way street with "ideas" coming from Harrisburg instead of the other way around. In the end, politicians need to talk less and listen more. And most importantly, they have to stop talking down to the rest of us. What are the chances of that happening?
Visit the TalkingPA Web site for more information.
