Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Councilman-Wonder

Today’s the day so let me ask you…  Have you voted yet?  I just left my local polling station and as I walked back to my car after placing my votes, I felt grateful that I live in a country where I can vote in a clean, safe place of my own free will.  Yet I also felt saddened by the fact that we live in a society where everyone feels entitled to their opinion yet so many seem to do so little to earn it.  Let me explain.

When you do a bit of homework and go to the polls to vote, be it for President or city councilman, I believe you earn the right to have an opinion about how things are going in your neck of the woods.  Take me for example.  I’m loud and outspoken and I have an opinion about most everything.  If you ask me, it’s highly likely I’ll have an opinion about the things going on in my community.  But I’ll also be certain to tell you that I voted.  Why?  Because I know my vote is my voice.  You won’t ever hear me say one of the more common excuses I hear like “why bother” or “it doesn’t matter, they’re all crooked anyway,” or the famous “I don’t have time.”  Voting is too important for a lame excuse.

While today’s vote in my city for mayor, city councilman, treasurer and school superintendent might seem like small potatoes to most, it’s a big deal to me.  I live in an amazing community, one of the best in the great state of Indiana.  Great schools, plenty of city services, good roads, safe neighborhoods, thriving free market economy, clean streets…  But we still have our problems.  We actually have a few BIG problems and we have a few things that need to be addressed that have been overlooked in recent years.  So I vote.

This morning I got to meet the very city councilman that belittled my husband and I in email over an issue set to take place near our neighborhood last year.  The project has since been completed and it’s plagued with unresolved issues.  When I asked Mr. Councilman-Wonder how he felt about his former projections regarding the project now that it was complete, he had no choice but to admit there had been oversight and mistakes were made.  You betcha there were mistakes, buddy. 


So I did what any good voter should do…  I smiled and shook Mr. Councilman-Wonder’s hand and said “good luck.”  He’s going to need it.