“Every
man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in
the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
It’s good to be back after a few days off.All is well with family and work just very
busy so instead of throwing some stuff together or posting old entries, I took
a few days off from writing to recharge the creative juices.I was hoping today’s entry would be a
celebration as my town had one of its most important votes last night with a much
needed new high school and fire station on the ballot among other things.The last year, especially the last few months,
have been very heated in our town with battle lines drawn, sides being taken
and information flooding the masses.As
you may have guessed from how I started this, none of it passed and even more
frustrating was how close it was.
We needed a 60% majority since these two structures would be
paid with bond money and despite a huge voter turnout, the yes vote on the high
school received about 58.5% for yes, missing by about 84 votes.The fire station was also close but I am not
sure on the exact numbers as it is important to me but the school was priority
1.Our town, Pelham, New Hampshire, is
what’s known as a bedroom community as we have about 14,000 residents and very
little business in town.Hence, our
property tax pays for just about everything in town.Schools, fire stations, police officers,
teachers, etc. will cause taxes to raise some and nobody likes to pay high
taxes.
I voted yes on just about everything as I base my decision
from a financial perspective as well as doing what is right.Our high school is over 30 years old and
falling apart.We are also on accreditation
warning, with much of it due to the structure and poor learning space.Ditto for fire station that is outdated now
that our town has grown.Our police and
other town staff have not had raises and the supervisors (aka leadership) are
also being denied standard of living increases, despite the pennies it would
cost us as townspeople.I am glad our founding
father and others fought for every citizen’s right to vote but the reality is
that some people need to lose rights if they abuse or do not take them
seriously.Just like drunk drivers
should lose their license, I believe abusive and unfit parents should not be
able to have kids.Teachers, coaches,
priests and others who abuse their position should never be able to hold it again.
Politicians who break laws or violate ethics should not be allowed to
serve.
Finally, people who do not respect the voting process or
take it seriously should lose their right.I know this last one cannot happen as unlike the rest, it is hard to
prove but move to Pelham, New Hampshire and you will know what I mean.We had about 650 people that voted “No” on grant
money to 100% cover the cost to repair a road or parking lot.This is the indicator of the people who every
year never read the ballot and vote “No” across the board.It still passed but what does this tell you
about some people?How do you vote “No”
on money given to your town to make it better?The sad answer is “when all your
care about is yourself” because too many people don’t get our opening quote
from Martin Luther King Jr.
Tomorrow I will pick up from here to focus on the title as people
were very inspired during this vote both for and against certain things.
