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President's Letter:
It's advocate, not abdicate
Ray Frew, CCFE
Ray Frew, CCFE, ICFA president for 2005-2006, is president of Green Hills Memorial Park in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California. He can be reached at drfrew@aol.com.
This is a situation that perplexes me greatly. So many of us go to work every day ready to take on all of the day's decisions and challenges as they pertain to our businesses. Yet, conversely, a great number of us are willing to let others make significant legislative decisions or even pass local ordinances that affect those same businesses without any participation on our part.
In a true sense of the word, we abdicate our role in the legislative process, very often to our own detriment. Often, if we are honest, we find ourselves complaining about what those politicians do to our lives. But, in spite of our dissatisfaction, we continue to either be apathetic or erroneously believe that we are impotent when it comes to making any changes. Both are attitudes that we must overcome. It is imperative that we individually and collectively take on active roles of advocacy and advocate on our own behalf and that of the organizations of which we are a part.
As prudent businessmen and businesswomen, we should feel a sense of responsibility to help support legislative goals and activities pertaining to the death care profession. We should feel compelled to assist in educating those in a position to affect our personal and business lives, just as we should pursue educating ourselves in such matters.
The definition of advocacy is "the act or process of supporting a cause or a proposal." The use of a thesaurus reveals alternate words for advocate to be "encourage," "countenance favor" and "support." To be effective advocates, we must develop relationships with the elected officials in our local communities, our states and our federal government. These relationships must be initiated, fostered through involvement and financial support and then called into action when issues of importance reach legislative or political agendas.
Each of us has ample opportunity to accomplish this on the local level and can be an active part of a larger effort, like that of the ICFA, to accomplish the same on a national level. People often say in regard to politics, "It is not what you know, but who you know." I say be the person who is known and the person others want to know and then use your local influence accordingly.
A common excuse for abdication is that "you" don't have the resources to make a difference. This might seem true because of the massive size of political campaigns in the election process. However, this is exactly why the ICFA Political Action Committee (PAC) can have an important impact on the legislative process. It is a powerful tool if you want to use it.
Your active support of the ICFA Government and Legal Affairs program can provide the education and awareness that both you and your elected representatives need to make appropriate decisions in the governance of our daily affairs. You just might be pleasantly surprised by the relationships you can help build. As James Taylor sang, "Ain't it good to know you've got a friend?"
Ray Frew, CCFE
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