Wednesday, November 14, 2001
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Wednesday, November 14, 2001 |
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Registered non-voters, you can still do the right thing Nov. 27 By CAL BEVERLY So did you vote last week? It's all over in Fayetteville; the incumbent won handily. But in Peachtree City, you registered voters who had more important things to do last week than practice your American citizenship you get another chance to do the right thing. Yep, even if you did NOT vote last week, you can still vote in the runoff Nov. 27. Let me put that in bold: HEY, SLACKER, YOU CAN STILL VOTE! Please do. A 34 percent turnout in a city as blessed and supposedly smart as Peachtree City is just a bloody disgrace. There are some even here in this office who say that low turnouts are a good thing. There are those who say that an increase in voter turnout just increases the level of ignorant votes. I have hope that this is not true. It must have been a real important soccer match, or trip to the grocery store, or maybe a not-to-be-missed episode of Oprah to cause those otherwise registered voters to deliberately ignore their duty. Here's hoping that Nov. 27 will find those missing voters in the voting booths in Peachtree City. If this column makes you angry, good. Take it out on me at the voting booth. Just vote. Now, about the election. Do you suppose that the Peachtree City Council got the message from the resounding bond referenda defeats last week? One who didn't, apparently, is mayoral candidate Gary Rower. He won't say whether he will try to get those defeated projects in through the back door should he be elected. He doesn't even like the notion of voters getting to decide on how to spend their tax dollars. Rower's position: Away with the voters; bring on the annexations; welcome, developers, shoehorn some more traffic in here! Mr. Rower seems to want to follow in Mayor Bob Lenox's footsteps and become King Bob II. How the "Ins" and their anointed ones are gnashing their teeth! Now that the "Outs" are close to taking power, the "I-promise-to-always-be-polite-and-never-divisive" crowd is suddenly taking off their white gloves to reveal mud-filled hands and mouths. Just read today's letters to the editor. Sign-stealing, mud-slinging, mouth-foaming ... my, my, my. How the worm does turn. In King Bob's memorable turn of phrase to a local civic club: "The inmates are taking over the asylum." Some asylum Peachtree City's levers of power. Some inmates you and me, the average taxpaying citizens, tired of closed government, power-brokered decisions, and arrogant dismissal by the ruling elite. Average, everyday citizens are taking a much-needed broom and sweeping out the "good ol' boys" and their cronies and bringing in fresh vision, fresh approaches and fresh air to a long-entrenched regime gone stale and fat with power. Here is one conservative who is ready for a change from the "none-of-your-business-as-usual" clique. And here's hoping I'll be waiting along with you in a long line to vote Nov. 27.
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