By AMY RILEY
One Citizen's Perspective

When I read last week that the petitions to recall the Fayette County commissioners had been dismissed by our local elections board because one of the sponsors, Carl Avrit, had also acted as notary on the documents, I was dismayed and a little disappointed.

Disappointed, not because I have any hope that they will be successful, but because the “process” will not be played out now because of a technicality.

My initial instinct was to admonish Carl for failing to carefully scrutinize the governing document offered along with the recall applications. That mindset lasted about a day, at which time I reckoned that participatory government is a little like walking out on a wire without a net, both for the elected men and women in whom we place our trust and for the citizen voters who are the guardians of that trust.

Two weeks spent slogging through the Georgia Ethics in Government Act seeking clarification over an individual citizen's right to attempt to sway voter opinion in an upcoming election taught me post-haste that responsible citizenry and active participation can be a foreboding experience. Yet, for all that it can be an intimidating process, it is a privilege and a died-for right in our republic.

It was then that I admonished myself for judging the mistakes of others, when I should have been applauding their willingness to enter the fray. To be fair, we should revere those brave enough to serve in public office, too. That can't be an easy undertaking, and is one that most of us cannot fathom.

The older I get and the more I participate, the more I view our process as a sacred trust. What we have here in Fayette- a host of diverse ideas and people, an educated and thriving populace, and yet an old fashioned home town climate reminiscent of times long past-is not some fluke, it is by design.

When I read of neighborhoods opposing high voltage power lines, or groups who oppose taxation or annexation, or groups who lobby for a SPLOST to build more schools, I am inspired to do my part.

I am repeatedly humbled by the caliber of letters that I read in the paper. In fact, it was one of the first distinctions that I noted about Fayette County when I moved here a little less than three years ago. I am amazed at the lengths to which people will go to research an issue and look beyond the surface for the obscure, but often profoundly pertinent “story behind the story.” I am equally awed by the level of activism, volunteerism, and charitable endeavors regularly performed in Fayette.

Even if we don't all have opinions about all of the issues facing the public today, and especially when we do and they don't agree, it is a privilege to live in a community where an active and informed citizenry provide the grist in the government mill. The water that spills over the wheel and turns the great stones are the laws of the land and the founding documents. The end product is the way that we live.

We are the conveyers of a legacy. What has been given to us, we must give to those after us. I used to think that protesters were complainers and people whose only interest was to represent their own views, but the very act of speaking out is the fulfillment of an obligation to be guardians of the public trust.

We are the checks and balances. We are the people. We are the government. If we don't like where we're headed, then we should take a different path.

Those who fail to participate are destined to have their views defined by others. Those who are active participants, even if they occasionally stumble in the process, are those who dearly appreciate what we have here in Fayette, and believe that we have something here worth preserving.

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