Election Day

Today is Election Day. Municipal elections, local governing districts, too, give voters the opportunity to select the volunteers willing to do the public’s work for the next four years or so. Fire districts, park districts, too, are elected at this time. So too the boards of trustees of local community colleges, and libraries, and township boards, and oh so many other bodies we rely on but know so little about.

It may be the lack of our knowing that is the story of today’s elections. As a prominent democracy America’s elections are almost sacred proof that ordinary citizens have the combined intelligence to make good decisions on who will represent them in the halls of governance. And advice on referenda as well. Today’s elections will help form public policy as we go forward together.

The story of today’s elections…must include the lack of participation. Local elections garner less than 25% of voters’ attention. So much is decided by so few. And from that public policy becomes distorted, misunderstood, miscreated. Out of tune with what the people truly want for their community.

Lack of participation is not the only ailment. Another is lack of familiarity with the issues. Do we really know what is meant by deficit spending? Tax levies and equalized property valuations? Tax rates and sinking funds? How much policing is a good thing? And fire protection designs that protect our lives and our property? What are optimal issues for us to understand? And what are the issues best left to the elected officials and their professional support staff? Those are the people who study the issues in fine print so the best decisions can be made for the long term protection of public interests.

In our small town of Warrenville, Illinois, there are citizens who feel that building a traffic circle in place of a complicated ill aligned intersection is an expensive folly. They deem their local officials incapable of making this sort of decision in the best interests of the community. So they have built a political campaign to stop the roundabout. They have built an image around this issue as though the city fathers must be stupid and insensitive to the public if the roundabout continues to be an agenda item. Even so the roundabout issue has not been decided and is most unlikely to be built anytime soon. If ever.

Trouble is this. Warrenville is a community that has no debt. All of its infrastructure is up to date and paid for. All of the community’s public buildings are new or nearly new and built to high quality standards for long-term reliability, low cost maintenance, and energy efficiency. Even the infrastructure’s future replacement and major maintenance costs have been handled via an accruing sinking fund so the community can continue its reliability without accruing major future debt.

Warrenville also relies on shared revenues from federal, state and county governments for replacements of bridges, flood abatement structures, and the like. We have learned to live cooperatively among ourselves and among other communities to be strong and self reliant. We come to the aid of other communities when they need it as well. We are not an island self centered on our narrow interests.

No we are a well managed community well partnered with other local government entities who are also well managed.

But is this what a narrow interest group of wannabe politicians focus on? No; it is a roundabout ‘traffic circle’ they focus on as though this oddity ought not have a presence in our corporate lives. An alien concept like this, after all, should not be considered or discussed?

What hooey! Don’t focus on what is right and well with the community. Don’t focus on the problems that might be forming on our horizon for which we need to be prepared. No; focus on a truly meaningless issue, blow it out of all proportion, and then hope the election balances on this ill conceived business.

It is enough to shame us all.

And thus, in a democracy, nutty issues will emerge. It is up to the rest of us to restore sanity and proportion to the reality. And vote accordingly.

Do your duty America. Vote. Vote intelligently. Act and be responsible. Our future depends on it.

April 7, 2015