It appears we know the names of the two remaining candidates and one will definitely be our next president ... Not surprisingly, there's a wide chasm of differences between the two ... passions are running hot, their supporters are filled with assertiveness, animosity, anger and rancor.
Despite the negatives and because of the passion, I'd say there's legitimate belief in the "system"... People want visions, tangibles and actions ... they want - we want - normalcy, fairness and justice.
Comparing the national state to our local government - there doesn't seem to be any connection.
Locally, voter turnout is consistently low (around 25%), few people have actually seen or heard the candidates (or the elected) and few can name the members of local city and county councils. Other than yard signs, can you recall any political candidate visiting this area and engaging us in a town hall type of meeting? And I don't mean the sham kind of meetings as was dished to us during the sports complex sales job. All of which adds up to a degree of pessimism. Many people have said to me, "You can't fight city hall, they're going to do whatever they want". Or, "That's how it is in Snohomish County".
I ask, "Do you think we have a fair and square representational county government?" "Do you think those five Snohomish Council people actually represent us and they're doing whatever it is they're doing with our best interest as their guiding light?"
I've been closely following the County's focus on our local community beginning with the initial plans for the Brightwater sewage plant ... that was in the late 1990's.
Our conflict with the County over Wellington Hills Park just passed the four year mark ... Not once in those many years have I sensed any sort of warm-fuzzy-real or honest connections between the County council or the county's bureaucracy with the people of this area. Despite their glittering generalities and sales pitches for "done deals", we are anonymous to them.
A while ago I attended a public meeting concerning the 2015 Comprehensive Plan... once their slide show was finished I asked one of the County planners a question relative to Wellington Hills... the response... "the County sees things more from 60,000 feet than ground level". I think that that encapsulates their general view of us.
It's easy to rant about how things are ... what's more important, and very difficult, is for citizens to step-up, with voices raised, and tell - not ask - but tell our representatives what's important to this community.
There should be no assumptions that things will be OK, that they have our best interests in mind when they do what they do because that isn't the way it works. There's a reason lobbyists and special interests people attend County Council meetings... they want their projects and their version of progress and because the lobbyists are always in front of local gov people - as opposed to us - they usually get whatever it is they want.
Save some of that passion you have concerning the presidential race and use it locally.
(I don't know who the few in attendance are ... the photo is meant simply to show a sparsely attended session.
If the Council is ruling on "newsworthy" items, the room can be filled, along with TV cameras too.)
1 comment:
I understand it's nearly impossible to attend Council meetings at 9 or 10 AM on week days... So, instead of giving in to their rules ... let's change the business hours so ALL County meetings are after 6PM or on the weekends. They are suppose to work for us - not the other way around.
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