A Lot Closer Than You Think
Looking at the signs on the Edgewood and other major streets in our district, the first thing that may cross your mind is – “it’s warfare – it’s a battlefield”.
Actually not!
Even with all these battles to win the hearts and minds of the voters, we, most of the candidates, do keep in touch. We send emails, we invite each other to our events, and meet each others at the NCPCA’s monthly and the officers’ meetings.
Given the small size of our neighborhood, we cannot afford to have frictions and divisions among us when we try to get important things done for our neighbors.
Funny enough, about a month ago, we signed each other’s petitions when we first applied for our candidacies before the campaign started in the full swing. Call this a true example of cooperation.
Thanks to the city’s election commission serving as the watchdog of this election’s campaign activities, I’ve noticed a few cases of “uneasiness” from a few candidates during our campaign. Some may think these are attempts to punish the other candidate, but I think they are ways to prepare the candidates to the larger role they aspired to take. As a candidate, one ought to prepare himself or herself a greater degree of transparencies and responsibilities.
Though unfortunate, our city councils in the past years have seen several incidents of bitter confrontations, many of them happening open in public, in front of the TV cameras and reporters. The scenes of such fights may be good candidates for entertainment session on the local TV channels, but not certainly good for the citizens, who elected those council members in the first place. Bitter fightings such as this prohibit the progress of council sessions, especially during the time of taking importatnt legislations.
During council and other public meetings, disagreements between our elected representatives is not an uncommon thing, but the key to a productive council lies in the getting along with other members in the team, especially during the time of disagreements.
In the end, our elected officials must learn how to build a strong team – for the sake of the residents who voted them to elect and to “get things done”.