Campaign ads, debates, whiny politicians; and we have not even begun 2016 yet. As I write this, our local elections will be held tomorrow. We have several candidates for the Board of Supervisors and School Board who have no one running against them, does this mean we are happy with the status quo, or that we just do not pay attention? I am going to go with the latter. We are a nation of head buriers. We are; we love to bury our heads as far down as they can go, it is amazing that any of us can breathe.
Are we happy with the way the county is being run? If you were to go ask 100 people in the new Kroger parking lot that question I wonder what their answers would be. I often find that people are just so worn out from their own problems (many created by bureaucratic bull hockey) that they aren’t aware of the greater problems in their communities or country. At the risk of sounding like conspiracy theorist, I think this is all done on purpose. If “they” can wear you down to the point of being so exhausted that you can’t focus, how are you going to know what in the world is really going on? That’s right – you will not.
So, tomorrow is Election Day. There are districts that have had the same representatives on the Board of Supervisor’s eight to twelve years, with no one running against them! Are these districts happy with the way things have been going over the last eight to twelve years, so much so that they don’t wish for another representative? Have the people seen solutions to the important issues in Chesterfield County, such as our traffic problems and our ever increasing poverty or have we just seen the same Good Ol’ Boys and Girls network at work, because that is what I see, and it makes me weary.
I want people to want to make a difference. You can do that in so many ways, you can become involved on so many levels, and one way to do that is vote, go to meetings and let your voice be heard, and by golly another is to run for office. It may be in vain, it does seem the same people are in control of everything and there are days that I truly feel like laying down and giving up, too, but we cannot, dear friends. We cannot let the weariness take hold, we cannot let those who sit in seats of power have all of the control. I saw the most wonderful quote that I want to share with you:
“How we walk with the broken speaks louder than how we sit with the great” – Bill Bennot. Truer words have never been spoken.
Let us wake up and take our heads out of the sand, let us stand up and let our voices be heard, let us rise and not sit by and let the same people keep making the same decisions that THEY want and THEY benefit from. We can make a difference. I can make a difference, and you can make a difference – VOTE.
