Beth's Ponderings
It seems whenever
elections of any nature, or level of government, come up, suddenly there are
serious personality clashes that didn’t seem to exist before, and opponents do
all they can to discredit the others running against them.
So, it should be no
surprise that we are seeing a number of politicians getting into trouble of
some form or another, with the most recent being Strathmore MLA Derek
Fildebrandt. What makes his situation a
bit more “severe” is that he was part of the Alberta Tax Payer’s Federation
prior to being elected and is accused of activities similar to those he used to
criticise other politicians of doing. Some
of his constituents feel betrayed and have adopted a “how the mighty have
fallen” attitude.
I don’t know Derek
personally, nor do I know all the ins and outs of the situation, but rather
than a case of the mighty falling, to me, it is just another example of how
easy it is to criticize from the OUTSIDE when you don’t know exactly what’s
going on INSIDE, for him and us.
To some degree, we
are all guilty of this. We think we can
run the government, or our local community organizations, much better than
those who are currently doing the job. We
think we have the answers to fix our family’s, friends’ and neighbours’ lives,
solving all their problems, whether we’ve been asked for our advice or not.
While, it is true
that an outside perspective can give valuable insight and clarity, and provide
answers that those in the situation are too close to see, more often than not,
those outside are missing vital information that only those on the inside are
privy to, information that makes a significant difference to the situation at
hand.
Nomination Day for
municipal elections is just around the corner, and if you are called to run, I
strongly encourage you to do so. However,
it is very important that we have individuals running for our municipal
councils who are willing to do the best for our communities, not individuals
who think they can come from the outside and “fix” whatever they think needs
fixed. What we see from the outside is
merely the tip of the iceberg of what is happening.
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua23/home/September%2015%2C%202017%20Chautauqua.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
