EDITORIAL - Dreaming dreams that work

Nobody will probably argue with anyone about attaining a liveable state for Cebu City and its residents. Unfortunately, not everyone may agree on what liveable means. There can be as many meanings to liveable as there are people living in the city.

A state of liveability is a worthy goal to pursue. But it has to take more than just sloganeering to actively pursue it to a successful conclusion. As many people as possible have to be brought on board. Anything less than the majority will not do.

The best way to get as many people on board as possible is to strike a consensus in each of the many facets that will make up the whole of what liveability means for all. And by consensus is meant agreement, not imposition.

To use the word demand, therefore, in pursuing the liveable goal is to go off on the wrong foot. Anybody with consensus in mind does not push his weight around and make demands. Only by coming to an agreement following a respectful exchange of ideas can consensus mean success.

Take bike lanes, for instance. There is nothing wrong with biking. It is fun, pleasurable and healthy. But the fun, pleasure and health of one cannot be enjoyed at the expense of somebody else's right to safety and convenience. Clearly, it does not work to make demands here.

The alternative is to talk. And so talk everyone should do, on the subject of existing realities, and what can realistically be done under the circumstances. Only by acknowledging these things can anything workable be realizes.

And that is because to reach a goal or attain an ideal, one has to work for it and make certain sacrifices. For instance, to acquire bike lanes in congested city streets would have to entail a few sacrifices.

One sacrifice that biking enthusiasts may have to make is for them to compel their parents who have two or three cars to give up all but one of these cars. It is these extra cars that lead to congestion that makes acquiring bike lanes almost impossible.

Now, to make biking safer, we need to have disciplined and responsible motor vehicle drivers. But having disciplined and responsible drivers won't work if skateboarders are allowed to crisscross city streets. You see, talk is cheap. It is in thinking and doing that dreams work.