Something Bigger: A Reflection on an Upcoming Election

On Tuesday May 5 citizens around Southwest Michigan will once again participate in the great responsibility of our democracy by electing candidates to public office and deciding to enact or reject important local ballot issues. Compared to the excitement about the election last November, this vote is just a sleepy little day to take care of business, but it's a day critical to the operations of school districts, and other public agencies, and it's the bread and butter of that idea that we are a country that governs itself of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Around Gobles and Bloomingdale, Pine Grove, Pullman, Kendall, Grand Junction, and all the rest, we are lucky that our public trust is almost always in the hands of good neighbors, folks that live just down the road and give freely of their time, energy, and talent, to help things run the way they're supposed to; most of the time the schools, roads, drains, libraries, municipal, emergency, and other services are invisible to us: they take care of our needs without us having to think about them. Think about that! That's not true everywhere in this world, and it's so true here we often take it for granted. That's no small thing.

Still, it's normal to notice when things don't work perfectly, and anybody who has worked in a service position knows that you can't make everybody happy. When elected officials can't provide complete satisfaction for every person and every complaint, they often end up with an earful of upset citizen.

Certainly any trustee on our local school boards would love to have access to all of the money to fund all of the projects that meet the needs of all of the people. Swimming pools at all the elementary schools: sure! Laptops for all the kids in the middle schools? Why not! College scholarships for all our high school graduates: absolutely! But because unlimited funds never exist, our elected officials have to make tough decisions, and right now it's even tougher: just like in the homes around here, money is tight for schools, municipalities, businesses, everywhere. When money is scarce, creativity, prioritization, sacrifice, and tough decisions are the only responsible answers, and disagreement must follow. That's part of the process, I'm afraid.

Because people don't always agree on priorities or public interest, there have been a few troubling occasions in the last few years in our small, local governments where people have forgotten that service means putting others first. Even more troubling is the thought that some people believe elections are about personality, personal priority, or personal problems they have with other people who have been called to serve.

It has been true around here too many times that normal government operations (election campaigns, monthly meetings, etc.) have been occasions for bad behavior. Recently a friend who lives in one of the communities that makes up a neighboring school district, described such public disrespect between citizens about public issues that I told her it sounded like it slander. We all deserve better than that.

More than 200 years ago the founding fathers of this country gave us the power to govern ourselves and the responsibility to do it wisely. On May 5 we will once again elect representatives and decide ballot measures, and then put the public trust in the hands of those we have elected to serve. We will not always agree as citizens with every decision or every person that influences our lives, but we are all, every last one of us, smaller than that something bigger called community, or the common good.

Our democracy is, and should be, the best of us. If we hold true to our responsibility to put that something bigger first, and do not compromise on our values, we can disagree respectfully, make tough decisions together, and provide a robust democracy in the smallest of places we call home. 


Note: This blog post is from a series originally published as personal essays written for the Van Buren County Advertiser from 2008-2014 by Corey Harbaugh under the title It's All Good. The It's All Good columns were written to feature and celebrate life in and around Gobles, Michigan.