EDITORIALS: Candidates For Office Are Heroes Of Our Democracy

3-19-10 


Issue One:
We Americans tend to criticize and denigrate politicians as a class, which is unfair to many individual office holders (and self-defeating to our democracy).
That’s because there are probably few activities that take more guts than running for office.  The just-completed Cooperstown village elections, for instance, were not for the faint of heart.
In life, we can obfuscate, we can compromise, we can string things along.  In politics, there is a day of reckoning, a day when a majority – in rare cases, a majority no larger than one – decides between victory and defeat.
The candidate puts it all on the line.
It is common in recent years to refer to men and women in the Armed Services generically as heroes, even though – as in every walk of life – some are more heroic than others.
Candidates as a class are no less heroic – Heroes of Our Democracy, if you will.
Those elected to village office Tuesday, March 16, and those who didn’t happen to win this time around both deserve our respect, appreciation and friendship.
The next time you see Joe Booan, Alton Dunn, Sally Eldred, Leslie Friedman, Jeff Katz, Lynne Mebust, Mike Molloy or Doug Walker – or the hardworking party chairmen, Rich Abbate or Glen Hubbell – say thanks.

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Issue Two:
During the campaign, distinctions were drawn among various constituencies within the village.
One side spoke of a rift between businesses and residents.  The other made a distinction between natives and people who have moved here.
It’s been noted here before that the diversity of the village – old families, young professionals with families, business people, retirees, the baseball crowd – makes it a mistake to strictly define Cooperstown exclusively one way or another.
As an approach to local government, it’s a non-starter.
Does it make any difference if someone seeking, say, a zoning permit lives in Hartwick or commutes on weekends from Westchester County?
It shouldn’t and, legally, it can’t. 
Village government would be best off to consider people and resolve issues on their own merits, not depending on who proposes them.
If, say, the village board concludes Main Street has too many baseball stores, the answer isn’t to be mean to baseball merchants.  The answer is to create the conditions that allow other kinds of stores to flourish. 
For instance, redeveloping the upper floors for housing would create a different kind of market downtown.  Communities elsewhere have bought buildings and offered favorable rents to targeted businesses – a grocery, perhaps.
Let’s accept that any vibrant community has varied people with a varied of goals and outlooks.  Let’s welcome that as we seek consensus solutions that benefit the community as a whole.