A New Leaf....

“He can’t do it, 
he can’t change it -It’s been going on for ten thousand years....”-- from “The Great Mandala” by Peter Yarrow 

“How’s the campaign going?” a friend asked this weekend.  “Which campaign?” I asked back, wondering why he’d think I’d know.  Earlier I’d confessed to thinking like a political animal - he must have thought I’d become one.

Actually, I’m still celebrating the fact that we’re going to have an election.  This is the first year in almost a decade that city council seats will be on the ballot, thanks to the fact that we actually have candidates running against the incumbents. Que milagro!

My friend, who’s participated in many campaigns over the years, had several ideas about how to get new faces on Lindsay’s city council, hospital and school districts.  They all sounded foreign to me, being politically reclusive myself regarding elections.  But it raised a very important question:  what’s the right way to campaign in a town like Lindsay?
Bumper stickers and yard signs?  “Walking,” as the politicos call it, going door to door? Canvassing the big flea markets, having a booth at events? Holding a forum for candidates, a night out on the town where we can hear what they think? Space in this newspaper, interviews on KTIP Radio?

I sense that many people in this community are a little more like me than I’d like:  private, want to keep their political choices close to their chests, not demonstrate what “side” they’re on, just mark their ballots and wait for the results. This town’s reputation as “friendly” and “nice” was built by Lindsay Ripe’s sales pitch (“A nice town, a great olive”) and I think the urge to live up to that reputation is still with us even though Lindsay Ripe is not. Elections so seldom are nice that I think we shy away from participating even when our interests really are at stake.

Another reason we tend to keep to ourselves is that we have become demoralized about our ability to participate in the ordinary details of this city’s life. I’d blame it on the former city manager, who took demoralization to new heights, but it continues under the current administration with the full blessing of the council.  And then there’s the dirty little fact that no one can remember when it was different. “It’s always been like this - you can’t change it” is something I’ve heard since I moved here 19 years ago.

That demoralization is the most important thing at stake in this election, more important than getting the streets paved and the budget balanced. I don’t believe it’s always been this way, and I don’t believe it can’t be changed. It’s going to take some people willing to be candidates (THANK YOU, ALL!) and then to campaign and work for change if they’re elected. That’s going to require that we, the electorate, move out of our protective “nice” shells and start  participating in the process.

So, fellow Lindsayites, let’s turn over a new leaf and welcome this election, with all its potential for saving our American souls as well as our city.