Voting is mostly a joke, let me explain.
So here we go again early voting has started and we are being asked to pick from the usual suspects, but is there somebody new and untested that will be better than those we have tested in the past or are we looking for the proverbial “Needle in a haystack”?
If you or I could sit down with each one of them and ask, why are you running for this position I'm sure we would get some earnest and somber-sounding answers, but would it be just a bunch of doublespeak, or would they actually try to do what they say they want to do.
For as long as I have lived here in Benson, and even going back to when my Mother and Step-father purchased this home in 1974, the City has continued to remain in disarray, or a shit-hole, for lack of a more or less descriptive expression. In that time taxes have continued to rise, homes have not been fixed-up, therefore home values in older areas have diminished, and the overall sediment of the citizens has declined, not improved, so is it a fair question to ask our newest flock of want-to-be “Leaders” what might their Plans be?
If you have lived in this town longer than even I, then you know that in 2003 our small City had an excess of one million dollars, there was no oppressive tyranny on the part of Planning and Zoning, and we had quite a bit more Freedom than today, so apathy and lack of willingness to take a stand and do the right thing have not changed one problem in this town over the many many decades, but has only made them all worse.
It appears to be a curious question why somebody in such a small City would ever aspire to be on the City Council or wish to become the Mayor. We know it's not because of money, because in all reality for the time they spend at meetings and trying to take care of certain obligations, they get paid very little for all the disrespect that they receive from their constituents, and it doesn't appear to be a feather in their cap or a great addition to their resume either, so what motivates someone to actually want to be elected for any of those positions?
When you ask some of them, they will say that they want to become involved, and do something to help their community, or to pay back to the community that they feel has given them so much in return, yet once elected they don't even take advice from some of the people they wish to serve, or try to change even the slightest mistakes or injustices that have been created in the past.
During my problem with the city, I noticed many of them seemed to be quite concerned about some of the injustice that was being done, not just to me, but to other citizens within this city limits as well, but at the end of the day, as usual, nothing had changed, and no one Stepped up.
I even took the time to look up State constitutional laws and explain to them that what they were doing was in error with State law, and with a simple change to an ordinance, that they had voted for could have rectified the problems not just for me but for many citizens within our city limits.
I explained that this was not something having to do with the good old boys club, or favoritism, but plain and simple English, the use of an abstract set of words that only required the city to have a simple emergency meeting to make all things right. I guess for them to acknowledge the mistakes in the verbiage and the language, and correct this long-standing problem with a simple vote was far beyond their concern, nothing got changed and the status-quo continued.
Most, if not all bureaucratic agencies ever relinquish control of the people, even if obtained illegally or by mistake.
So allow me to ask again, what good are they? Do they really care even just enough to try to change things at their level or is it so much easier to ignore it and hope the issues go away, I have lived in this city for over 20 years and I can say for a fact that none of our important issues have “gone away”?
I can only speak to this matter from my point of view and for my struggle the last two and a half to 3 years dealing with something that could have been handled so much better by all of the people that said they cared
I am not picking sides or naming names I'm just asking the question that seems to not get asked by the newspaper or any of the local media, what good is it to vote for certain people when they either have no authority or will take no action to improve the constituents lives of this city.
In all honesty, if their hands are truly tied, then why would I ever vote for any of them, and why can't they explain to us their plans to get themselves untied from the red tape that supposedly binds them? If they are running to be of Service, to do some good, or make the City a little better, then they should ask themselves, why am I running for this position, and if I win, what are my goals?
I feel that our only vote that can truly be of any help or importance is for the Justice of the Peace, the County Commissioner, County Prosecutor, and Sheriff, these are the only people we can vote for that could truly make a change for the good of the city and our county, everyone else has shown that they can’t fix anything, and will most likely continue to make thing cost more for us to live here in the long run.