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Choosing our leaders

The end came mercifully quick and early. Seconds after the polls closed in California, newscasters who seemed on the edge of bursting called the game. Hope triumphed over fear.
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The end came mercifully quick and early. Seconds after the polls closed in California, newscasters who seemed on the edge of bursting called the game. Hope triumphed over fear.

I can check electing a black man president off my List of Things I Probably Won�t Live Long Enough to See.

I don�t know what kind of president Obama will be. I don�t know what kind of congress the Democrats will run. I�ll try to keep my hard-earned cynicism in check because, at least for the moment, hope kicked cynicism�s butt and a new generation, the next generation, has dodged what could have easily been a very large, cynical bullet. With good luck and hard work, they�ll keep dodging it and the people they helped elect will do a better job governing than has been done for way too long now.

I don�t know when Obama will stop campaigning and start leveling with my American brothers and sisters, tell then what they know � the party�s over � and tell them what they suspect: now it�s time to pay the bills. And I don�t have a clue how they�ll react to it. Most of us have lived most of our lives under a fantasy doctrine that taught us we can have much of what we want right now and leave paying for it to future generations. While individual bad choices and bad luck led many to the state of financial ruin they�re not enjoying today, they were just living on an individual scale what they saw being played out on a national scale: buy now, pay, whenever.

Economic theorists were the codependents in this psychotic dance with debt, assuring both leaders and followers that deficits don�t matter. Perhaps not in the short run. But as a policy spanning decades they bring to mind the admonition of the late Illinois senator, Everett Dirksen, �A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you�re talking real money.� In this case, over 10 trillion dollars of real money.

But the hoped-for future Obama�s been peddling for the last two years is a future less weighted down by dogmatic ideology. He doesn�t believe government to be the evil beast the Republican party, particularly in its neo-conservative incarnation, dismantled but as an institution to channel the collective good. He doesn�t see his job as neutering government; he sees it as making government work again for more than just the self-interested players with an inside track. Don�t frankly know if that�s naive or hopeful.

But it helps frame the question we have to answer for our little corner of the world in a week and a couple of days. Who will we hand the levers of power � such as it is � over to?

The good news is, there isn�t a lot of fear to vote for. The bad news is, there isn�t a lot of hope either. In a field of 17 council candidates I�ve run into a wall coming up with six I can get excited about. I�ve listened to their performances, read their websites, talked to many of them one-on-one and had long conversations with friends and strangers.

Some simply don�t seem serious about doing the work it takes to run for office. I can�t imagine they�ll do the work the job requires should they succeed. Some seem earnest but ill-suited to the compromise required to accomplish anything on council; the search for common ground is, after all, far less exciting than getting your own way. To be fair, I fall into that category myself and my gift to all of you is to not run for any office because of it.

Some seem to be angry about the way things have been decided by the current council. Anger is hard to maintain, rarely accomplishes anything and generally leaves one wondering why he ran for office once those realities set in.

Some seem a bit too self-interested to be the kind of person I want making decisions for the greater � public � good. Some seem to think representing an underrepresented demographic is sufficient. And others believe the best thing councillors can do is listen and reflect what da people want. That�s a necessary tool to pack along but without more of an organizing philosophy leads to indecisiveness at best and tyranny of the majority at worst.

It both saddens and angers me there aren�t any women running for council. I�d love to hear why smart women are so totally disinterested. And I�m beginning to believe it�s too much to hope for that in a town demographically skewed towards youth, there will ever be qualified twentysomethings emerge to make a serious run.

But a long time ago I explained to Mr. Barnett that I believed it was a local paper�s duty to back candidates and I considered it a total cop out for someone who writes an opinion column every week to forego sharing his opinion about them. I still believe that, although the task hasn�t gotten any easier over the years. And the usual caveat applies: this is one man�s opinion. And we all know opinions are like� well, we all know.

I�ll vote � and this is the first time I�ve actually been able to do that � to return Eckhard Zeidler to the council table. Eckhard�s a bit of a wingnut but he�s a smart wingnut and there have been a lot of times in the past three years where I�ve written discouraging words about council decisions and had to exclude him because he�s been on the losing side of the issue� my side. He�s got a financial background and has issued a fatwa against the next council making bold economic moves.

I�ll vote for Chris Quinlan. Chris has been a tireless worker in the community and should have been elected three years ago. His commitment is abundantly evident, his businesses successful and his community spirit limitless.

I�ll vote for Tom Thomson. I don�t know anyone who can keep pace with Tom in the volley world and I can really warm up to a guy whose friends call him the cheapest guy they know. As a teacher he understands you can learn as much listening as you can impart talking.

I�ll vote for Grant Lamont. Grant�s worked hard to help Whistler grow and if he gets out of line, Caroline will set him straight. He has an entrepreneurial spirit and seems to understand local government�s role in helping move things forward.

There are others I won�t be sorry to see elected but just can�t get excited enough about to vote for. No one says you have to cast six ballots. And, of course, no one says you have to agree with me. Make up your own minds.