Published: February 09, 2006 04:07 pm      

Get involved, or get lost

RIDE THE LIGHTNING

I first exercised my right to vote in the 1976 presidential election. I certainly wasn’t voting age, but my mother took me with her into the voting booth and allowed me to obliterate my first ballot chad. It turns out that I voted for whom my mother and father were supporting, the Republican candidate for president, Gerald Ford.

A perusal of the “weekly-reader” distributed amongst us five-year-olds showed photos of both candidates, Ford and Jimmy Carter. Carter’s toothy smile gave me the willies, so I was determined to put an elephant in the oval office. Sadly, my then fatuous criteria are still used now – and by people who are the legal voting age and beyond.

How many times do politicians pride their selves on being the “average Joe;” the sort of selfless everyman anyone would want to sit down and have a cup of coffee with, or grab a beer at the local watering hole after work? Sure, an elected official must be able to relate to his or her constituents, but casual connection doesn’t insure credible leadership.

What about experience? What did the candidate do in college? Did they serve in the military? What sort of goals and aspirations did they have as an adolescent, teenager, or young adult? Did their concern end with the confines of their own backyard, or did their eyes wander far beyond that property line? Are they intellectually curious, or are they merely satisfied with status quo? And, perhaps most important: What are they offering the voting public?

Not many elected officials are “offering” much of anything. On national and state levels, candidates crow about restoring honor or integrity to a specific office, or they talk about keeping us free and safe, or they just point out inconsistencies or flaws in their opponents’ positions. All of this becomes a big ol’ watered down cocktail at the county level, with folks simply stating their names, telling where they go to church, and explaining that they’ve been a lifelong resident of blah, blah, blah. – Wake me up when it’s over.

And this isn’t limited to elected officials: It’s infiltrated county appointments, too. Folks call this “Good Ol’ Boy” politics; others call it “cronyism.” Butts, like many other counties, gets acute cases of the “Good Ol’ Boy,” and the only way to cure that is for members of the community to become involved.

Getting involved isn’t an all-consuming commitment; “involvement” involves attendance at three or four meetings a month. County commissioners, city councils, development authority, water authority, planning and zoning – these aren’t subterranean cabals; they are – usually – open meetings, places where the county’s business is conducted for any and everyone to see and hear. And with public eyes and ears present, elected officials might actually start offering something.