Why You Need to Vote on November 6
I come from a long line of involved citizens. As a child, my mother would drag take me with her every Election Day, where she worked the polls. Like so much about childhood, I didn’t appreciate it then, but I certainly do now.
Both of my parents were the children of Greek immigrants. They never forgot how lucky we were to live in this country, and they never failed to remind me. Both of them voted in every single election. I don’t even know what party they belonged to, or if they did; I just knew that they took their responsibilities as voters very seriously.
Their participation was not limited to national elections; they understood, and instilled in me, the understanding that it was our mayor, our School Board, our city commissioners who had the most direct and near-immediate impact on our daily lives.
Claire Dinshaw’s piece in the Stanford Daily, “Think small: Local elections matter,” notes that “Despite our own apathy, municipal and local politics play a crucial role, not only in the creation of state level policy, but also in the selection and training of the next generation of government leaders. The municipal elections of today are selecting the politicians of tomorrow.”
Even across the pond, local elections matter too. Writing for The Conversation, Karin Bottom, a Lecturer in British Politics and Public Policy at the University of Birmingham, believes that “Local issues matter…Local authorities are responsible for a significant proportion of our public services. Their budgets are handed to them from Westminster but it’s up to them how they are spent.” Indeed.
Why I’m Voting in the November Election
While all of this is true, I have a more personal take on why local elections matter, a more personal stake in the outcome, and I believe you do as well. Regardless of who’s president, regardless of who’s governor, our quality of life right here in Pompano Beach will always rest largely on who’s on the dais at 100 Atlantic Boulevard. These are the men and women who will lead our city into the future, or not. The men and women who will set the tone for civil and professional discourse, or not. The men and women who will continue making our city a shining example of what collaboration and inclusion can do for a city that desperately needs it, or who will make our city an embarrassment, an example of how the people who represent us should not behave.
I joined Citizens for a Better Pompano Beach because yes, I want to see our city keep moving forward. But I joined for another, equally important reason: I want to see our dais filled with people I can be proud of.
I hope you do, too. Please join me in making sure that we keep moving forward, and that we do so in a way that makes us proud to be Pompano Beach residents.
