What’s good for the swarm

That which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Six, No. 54.

I confess that my education, particular my college education, was overly technical. I majored in economics through the College of Business Administration at LSU. I chose that over what likely was a broader range of courses resulting in the same major in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The business and economics major has served me well in my law practice, and even in my public service. Still, as I have grown older, I have realized that my judgment, my insight, might be better with more exposure to philosophy and literature.

Five years ago, several events converged to help me expand my self-education. First, my son Jordan Montgomery Lewis gave me a Kindle Fire. I also decided to be much more regular in my exercise, finding exercise machines, first at the downtown YMCA, then at the fitness center at the Regions Center, that allowed me to read on that Kindle Fire while I huffed and puffed. Now I read a dozen or more books a year just while exercising.

Reading former Times editor and now columnist Judy Pace Christie’s columns on books encouraged me to increase my reading, especially of fiction. I got hungry to expand my reading experience, to broaden my topics and genres. To enhance my education and perspective.

All that led me to the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius (full name Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus) was Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 A.D. His Meditations were personal reflections on life and philosophy. As I read them, I found that, like most classic pieces, many of his observations, rooted in Stoicism, still ring true today, even for non-Stoics like me.

The statement with which I began this column reflects Aurelius’s view that all of nature and mankind are part of a single body, one organism designed for each part to contribute to the whole. In that sense, it is mindful of St. Paul’s lesson in 1 Corinthians 12 (“There is one body, but it has many parts.”)

During my lifetime, the Shreveport City Council, the Caddo Parish Commission (or its predecessor the Caddo Parish Police Jury) and the Caddo Parish School Board all switched from at-large election to single-member districts. The switch opened the door for the inclusion of previously excluded groups, even geographical parts of the City and Parish, to have representation on the governing bodies for the first time. Hilry Huckaby, III, Reverend Herman Farr, and Senator Gregory Tarver became the first African Americans to serve on the Shreveport City Council.

As a whole, inclusiveness has made our community better. Because the leaders of the swarm were not all white and not mostly from Southeast Shreveport, the interests of African Americans and, for example, Southwest Shreveporters, no longer could be buried or ignored. That was good for the swarm.

Single member districts also pose some threats to the swarm. The most significant threat is the creation of seven (or, in the case of the School Board and the Parish Commission, twelve) swarms rather than one. A Mayor elected at large, with strong powers as provided in the City Charter, helps to keep the swarm together. To stick to one swarm on the School Board or the Commission requires more leadership and a broader view from the leader bees who serve the swarm there.

Governing bodies should resist the temptation to divide resources, particularly capital project resources, equally among districts, or to permit members of the governing body to decide unilaterally what projects the government will do in the member’s district. That is the multi-swarm approach. As former Caddo Schools Transformation and Innovation Officer Billy Snow would say passionately, government should direct resources equitably, not equally.

We should look for candidates who will represent their districts effectively and passionately. We also should look for candidates and for office holders who remember that if it isn’t good for the swarm, it isn’t good for the bee.

Tom Arceneaux has been involved in master planning for Shreveport as well as many civic organizations. He is a lawyer and vice president of practice development at Blanchard, Walker, O’Quin & Roberts. You can follow him on Twitter at @TomArceneaux.