Westside Story Newspaper – Online The News of The Empire – Sharing the Quest for Excellence
Publisher’s Commentary By Wallace J. Allen
Less than fourteen percent of San Bernardino’s eligible voters bothered to vote in the past November elections. Elections that selected five City Council Members who will make the major policy decisions to lead the city out of bankruptcy!
Sixth Ward voters get a chance for a ‘do over’! They will get a second opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice. There is a special run-off election scheduled for Tuesday February 2. The special election will decide the occupant of the 6th Ward Seat. In the November’ general election, only 3 of every 20 people registered to vote in San Bernardino’s 6th ward, did so.
Is it correct to assume that the other seventeen people who didn’t vote don’t really care who is “in charge” in City Hall? Or maybe they just trust the judgment of the three who decided to vote.
Anyone that holds elected position for a constituency that votes at a less than fifteen percent rate knows the people they represent “don’t really give a hoot”! How the elected official responds to that fact is a demonstration of their integrity… But we have to admit, it is probably difficult to drive a hard negotiation for your constituency when the elected official that is being negotiated with knows that the people that you are representing, “don’t really give a hoot”!
A Sixth Ward Candidates Forum & Debate is scheduled for 6 PM Monday January 11. Sixth Ward voters can see, hear and question the two wonderful women who are candidates for the right to represent the Sixth Ward. The Forum is at the Ingrahm Community center, 2050 N. Mt Vernon Avenue.
If you are eligible to be a voter, you should care about the condition of your streets and street lights, about garbage and blight, about fire protection and police services, about parks and activities for children and senior citizens. You should care about business and job development! The list goes on and so does government that probably doesn’t serve you, but it appears that 17 out of 20 of you “don’t really give a hoot”! There is too much at stake to not vote!
“You will probably lose more by not voting than you gain by voting. It is kind of like treading water, you don’t get far doing it, but you can lose everything if you don’t! “- Wha-Lee.
