Checking Up on Tuesday’s Lazy Non-Voters
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The News & Advance
Published: May 9, 2008
Thumbs down to the 82.6 percent of Lynchburg’s registered voters who didn’t even bother to show up at the polls for Tuesday’s City Council elections.
The only upside — and it’s a mighty tiny one — is that 6,961 Lynchburgers did perform their civic duty and turn out at the polls. All it took was getting up few minutes earlier Tuesday morning, taking a little bit shorter lunch hour or making a detour on the way home in the evening.
And yet barely 17 percent of those registered even bothered.
After weeks of council candidates campaigning, meeting the folks in their wards, speaking to civic groups, the overwhelming majority of Lynchburgers just yawned.
How sad. And how pitiful.
When citizens deem it important enough to commit themselves to four years of public service, the rest of us ought to deem it just as important to take what they do seriously and support their efforts.
That we don’t is mind-boggling.
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Martha ) on May 10, 2008 at 3:18 pm
There were choices in each Ward. A Ga-zillion forums, radio interviews and newspaper questions and articles.
I feel like people must have been uninterested and that is sad.
Marie Waller lost by what, 35 votes? She made a valiiant effort on her own behalf to get to know voters in areas outside of her neighborhood.She was deserving and would have been a positive force on council. A fairer person and a harder worker for Ward IV would have been hard to find.
Nat Marshall, who I worked for, is frankly too good a person for council. He is so involved with the community and charities I am not sure how they would fill the void if he won an election.
These are 2 good people who have already made an incredibly positive impact on community and we are the better for them!
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Posted by ( Cosmo Wafflefoot ) on May 10, 2008 at 12:57 pm
I submit to you “That we don’t” is completely understandable in the light of recent studies and books that have been published. They deal with exactly what it takes for a city to be vibrant and alive. They speak of the characteristics necessary for not only a high quality of life, but a thriving economy and downtown. Lynchburg lacks each and every one of them!
The one key factor revealed in all the research as necessary for success is an “open arms” welcoming of diversity. Successful cities where both civic involvement and resident satisfaction are highest are places that go out of their way to welcome the largest assortment of religions, age groups, philosophies and life styles. Diversity not only provides an interesting environment, but, it appears an economically successful one. College graduates, from coast to coast, are most attracted to the most highly diverse cities. They are repelled by environments that are, dare I say it, fundamental and closed minded. It is illustrative, I think, to compare Lynchburg and Charlottesville. Two cities, barely half a hundred miles apart, that appear be located on different continents and in different ages. One embraced diversity and the future, the other did the opposite and both the quality of life and property values reflect it boldly. One became a destination for young, highly educated, people who seek to raise their families in an exciting and highly diverse environment. The other hitched their wagon to 15th century theology and is openly intolerant of anybody or anything that does not agree. As in all of nature, what ceases to grow begins to perish. The fact that Lynchburg is going in the wrong direction is illustrated by not only the election turn out, but the “political” topics leading up to the election. A 63% high school graduation rate! Millions of taxpayers dollars used to guarantee the private investment in a “boutique” hotel that is so noisy people can’t sleep in it! A desecrated mountain side in an age where reverence for nature is paramount! School Board appointments of people openly contemptuous of not only Public Schools, but science and scientifically accepted principals!
The only thing that shocks me is that ANYBODY gave a damn enough to come out and vote at all. Apathy, after all, is one of the last signs a living organism expresses as it comes to realize it’s end is both inevitable and close.
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