A rising tide lifts all the boats.

My research this past week focused on the common good and I got help from Congress. The House and Senate wielded their override power to circumvent the President’s veto and pass legislation to benefit the nation as a whole. The mammoth Water Resources Development Act authorizes $23 billion for water projects including everything from restoring the Florida Everglades and the Gulf Coast areas hit by Hurricane Katrina to sewage plants, dams, and beaches.

According to the New York Times, “Some critics said that the measure did not do enough to reform the Army Corps of Engineers, which would handle much of the work; that there is already a huge backlog of water-related projects waiting for money; and that the current bill was larded with political pork.”

Forty-five years ago, upon approval of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project in Pueblo, Colorado, President John F. Kennedy had a much different outlook. He said, “A rising tide lifts all the boats.” Therefore, progress in Colorado is progress for the nation. “We are not 50 countries—we are one country of 50 States and one people. And I believe that those programs which make life better for some of our people will make life better for all of our people.”

He then called on Congress to write “a conservation record second to none,” to add three national seashore areas to the National Park System (Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Point Reyes in California, and Padre Island off the Texas coast) and enact “an open space program for our cities; a significant wilderness bill; and youth employment opportunities which would authorize a youth conservation corps.”

Kennedy recognized that truly beneficial programs have "significance" beyond their specific location, their immediate constituencies, and their moment in time. For him, the common good was a very expansive concept. I'm trying to capture that momentum in a definition. So far, I have a working draft.